Ep #18: Money Goal Mistakes You Can Skip Making

Did you know that 2024 is an 8 year? Now, if that sounds a little woo woo, hear me out. Because the 8 year is all about power and success and balance. So, if your vision for 2024 is to create and keep more money; yes, please. Right? Then starting the year by getting clear on what steps you can take that both capitalize on the energy of the 8 year, and give you practical guidance, is definitely a smart move to make.

What if you could avoid all of the mistakes creating your money goal and just choose your number with grace and ease? Creating a money goal can be a powerful catalyst for incredible personal growth and business growth. And, yes, it can even be fun, I promise.

I'm Kendall. Tune in this week to discover eight money goal mistakes you can absolutely skip making, plus you'll hear what the signals are that lets you know if you're making any of these mistakes. Because avoiding mistakes, it saves you time, it saves you effort, and, most of all, it saves you energy. Even more importantly, avoiding mistakes is how you can stay inspired and committed, and make the journey of achieving your goal feel amazing. It’s all here for you in this episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. Let’s dive in.

Welcome to The Money Coach School Podcast. To really excel at coaching women, you have to be skilled, confident, and even fearless at money coaching. If you're passionate about women holding genuine money power and love supporting women entrepreneurs, then this is the show for you. Now, here's your host, money feminist Kendall SummerHawk.

Hello, beautiful coaches. I am so glad you're here with me today. I am particularly excited to bring you today's topic, which is all about money goal mistakes you can just skip making once you hear the insights that I have for you today. You're welcome.

I'm also celebrating a first. There's something you should know about me is I am a huge fan of celebrating every little win. I love the energy of celebrating, which creates endorphins and all those feel good neurotransmitters. Let's be honest, running a business is challenging even on the best of days. Celebrating all of the little wins creates what I call a success stack. A success stack keeps you enjoying the journey and not waiting to reach any particular milestone in order to feel good.

So back to that win I'm celebrating. This is episode 18 of the podcast, which means we've been going for a little over four months. Now for everything in my business, I have a bucket list. For the podcast, one of my bucket list items was to have listeners binge on the episodes. Well, we had our first person let me know that she binge-listened to the episodes, which made me so happy. She also enrolled in my Secret Energy of Money mastermind, which we're enrolling into right now, which makes me even happier.

So my beautiful binge listener, and you know who you are. Thank you. Thank you for loving this podcast. Thank you for finding a binge worthy and for coming into Secret Energy of Money with me. Because we're going to be diving deep into the five money principles and money tools, which I have found result in creating new growth and success in your business. We're going to revolutionize your relationship with money.

In Secret Energy of Money, I teach you the Secret Energy of Money method, which is this amazing process that I created that you can use for yourself every day in your business. You can apply it to any and every business challenge that comes your way.

The method, the Secret Energy of Money method, is this incredible tool for immediately untangling unhelpful money stories, eliminating unhelpful, repetitive thinking, and immediately creating a new plan and specific steps for yourself so that you're clear and confident about every aspect of your business. And so that running and succeeding in your coaching business gets easier and easier. So that's a little behind the scenes here in my world. If you're listening to this episode in real time, or close to real time, definitely check out Secret Energy of Money mastermind, which I will link to in the show notes.

All right, so money goal mistakes. The reason why I'm so excited to bring this topic to you is personally I love any kind of a podcast or a list or an article where they give you mistakes to avoid. I think that's the perfectionist in me who wants to get it right. It's also the impatient part of me that does not want to waste time or energy heading down the wrong path, especially when it comes to money.

Because my experience both for myself and for my clients inside of my trainings and certification trainings is always this. When you're clear, the universe opens up, and it just seems to step up to meet you. Have you also found that to be true? So that's why I get so energized about removing any and every obstacle on your path so that you can surge ahead.

What I've seen in my now over 22 years of coaching women entrepreneurs on money is so many times women shy away from even making a money goal, which is definitely a mistake. If you're not creating a money goal for yourself then there's a reason for that. That reason usually stems from fear or self-doubt or uncertainty or some idea about money goals that just isn't serving you.

Because without a money goal that you feel connected to in a positive way, money is just going to happen to you and probably not in ways that you're going to like or that are going to serve you. So if I can ease your mind, and if I can help make your success creating a money goal inevitable, then I am all in.

As I go through this checklist of money goal mistakes that you can skip making, I want you to just ask yourself am I doing any of these? That's your signal that there's inner money work you can be doing to clear out that thought or block so that you can get all of the power and support a money goal has to offer you without any negative or unhelpful feelings about it. So let's dive right in.

Here are eight money goal mistakes that you can absolutely avoid. Number one, not setting a money goal at all. This is probably the biggest mistake. There are all kinds of reasons women shy away from setting a money goal. Reasons like they're afraid they won't reach it, and then they'll feel disappointed. Which, by the way, means you're probably already feeling disappointed. Also means you have not yet seen the value in having a money goal.

What I've seen in my decades of money coaching women entrepreneurs is if you're reluctant or afraid to set a money goal then whatever the thoughts are that are stopping you are also stopping you from making more money. It's like you can't say like I want to make more money. But no, I'm not going to set a money goal. Do you hear how oppositional that is? I would much rather have you set a money goal, maybe not reach it, which is totally okay, but use it as a catalyst for the inner money work that is just begging to be done. Use it as a catalyst for incredible personal and business growth.

Number two, setting a money goal that is too small. I call this hedging. It's another form of avoidance. Maybe it's avoiding feeling pressure or feeling disappointed or feeling scared or nervous. But here's the thing, setting a really small money goal, it means you're giving power over to those feelings instead of saying yep, I'm feeling that way. So let me address those feelings as part of my inner money work.

Now you can tell if your money goal is too small because you can feel it's playing safe. It's playing safe to avoid feeling an uncomfortable emotion. That is always the tip off. You don't always have to set the biggest goal. I'm going to talk about that in just a moment. But you have to set a money goal that's going to make you feel a little uncomfortable. All right. If you're setting it small in order to avoid feeling any kind of uncomfortable emotion, well then it's just too small. So my coaching advice is choose your money goal based on what you want it to be, and then start doing the inner money work to calibrate to that goal.

Number three, setting a money goal that is too big. I see this the most with women who have a pattern of not making a lot of money. Then they swing wildly to the other side and say, I'm going to make a million dollars this year, or whatever it is. There's this energy to it of not really being connected. I call it magical money thinking. It's like the number is just this thing they're saying without any real connection as to what that number means for them, or even really checking in to see if the number is what they truly want.

This is where you have to be intentional about comparison. What your colleagues are doing or what you see in the online coaching space. Guess what? It's not important. It's not relevant. It is not meaningful or personal to you. Please, please do not get hooked or triggered or caught up in what other people are doing.

I mean I know it's really easy to see coaches in the online space throwing around a lot of big numbers that they're bringing in, and for you to start thinking yeah, I'll go for that too. Or hearing how everyone is hyper focused on something like six figures, for example. So you decide that's your number. But there's no emotional why behind it for you.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love big, bold, badass money goals. The kind that stretch me and make me think in entirely new ways. But I'm not choosing a number from a place of should or have to or fear of missing out or trying to keep up. You will never be successful with your money goal if that's the space that you're coming from.

When I first decided to make a million dollars, I actually did not say it that way to myself. What I said was I want to be a million dollar business owner. At the time I was nowhere near that number, by the way, not even close. Also at the time, though, I had only seen one person doing it. It was a guy. I'm sorry, I don't even remember his full name. But he was making over $2 million a year running an online group coaching program a very particular way. This was way back in the day before this was a thing, right?

So when I heard that I was blown away. I had no idea coach could make that kind of money. So hearing his numbers, what it did for me is it opened up this huge vision of possibility that I would otherwise never have known about. That possibility took hold in me. I kept thinking about it and thinking about it. I will never forget the day that I decided to be a million dollar business owner.

It scared the daylights out of me. I had no idea of the how. I had no idea how long it would take. I just knew that I wanted to achieve that for myself. I committed to that vision 1,000%. I will tell you, it pushed every button I have about making money, having money, pushed all my buttons about who am I, a lot about who am I, but I was on willing to back down from that commitment.

Because inwardly, I knew that I could do it. Even on the days when I thought I can't do this. There were those days with my head literally in my hands crying, saying to myself I can't do this. That only lasted for like a moment. I would pick my head back up. I would say out loud yes, I can. Honestly, it only took two years from making that decision to be a million dollar business owner to making a million dollars within one year. That was in 2008.

I changed as a person. I really showed myself what I am capable of. I am so grateful today that God put that idea in my head, and that I had one person, this guy whose name I don't remember. I remember his first name is Chris. I don't remember his last name. But I'm so grateful that I had one person who was already walking that path so I could see what was possible.

Now my point in sharing this with you is that yes, that was a very, very big money goal. But I was so connected to it. I had such ownership of it. I felt into that goal every single day until I reached it. So setting a goal that's too big for external reasons, that would have been a mistake. But setting it for internal reasons can be a hugely transformative experience.

All right, money goal mistake number four, too vague. So one of the mistakes I see is saying that a money goal is, quote unquote, about a certain amount, or saying well, it's at least such in such an amount, or just saying you want to make more money. Well, guess what? More is not a number. The energy of these types of statements is vague. It's not specific. It's really kind of dancing around the topic.

Again, similar to setting a money goal that's too small, being vague usually comes from a place of fear. It may not even be feeling afraid of making that money goal. It can often be a fear of the consequences of achieving it. That type of fear often is from a place of what will people think, or worry, concern over how you'll be perceived if you become this woman who's making that amount of money.

I also see a trend in the online coaching space where some very successful coaches are using this phrase of I made such and such amount of money, and it just makes no sense. Seriously, it makes total sense to me. They're marketing in a very magnetic way. They're selling all of the time. They've mastered social media, especially Instagram, and they did not just start their business yesterday.

So the phrase I made all of this money, and it makes no sense. I find it, truthfully, really annoying because I think it creates a false sense that that coach didn't do anything. That the money magically fell into her lap. It sets up a false expectation that there's no real work involved. That making money is 100% energetics, which is just not true.

I think that that leads to confusion for people listening to that message who then experience a lot of heartbreak because making money is both hard work, and yes, energetics. It’s both. Making money is a lot of things. The experience can be amazing and mind blowing, but it never, quote unquote, makes no sense.

Plus, giving yourself very vague goals. It makes it easy to just give up on the goal or even forget about having the goal in the first place.

All right, number five, too black and white. I've coached thousands and thousands of women on money. It might surprise you how often someone will say I didn't reach my goal. I'm so disappointed. But this is the surprising part. When I ask them what their goal was, because that's always my first question. Well tell me, how much was your goal, and then how much did you actually made? The numbers are like within 5% or maybe 10% of each other. It's like, for example, their goal was 50,000, and they made 48,000. They're saying they're so disappointed because they didn't reach their goal.

Really? It's like you're either 100% achieving that goal, or you didn't at all and it gets classified as a failure. It makes you want to give up on your goals or on goal setting. Please don't do that. You want to hold the energy and the specifics of your money goal, absolutely. But you also want to give yourself the grace of how far you've come and all the learning in the becoming that's happened for you in the process.

Goals are a destination, for sure, but the journey is what changes you. The journey is all about who you're becoming in the process. One of the things that I think is so important with goals is creating self-trust. When you slip into black and white thinking, I either did it or I didn't. If I didn't, then I'm going to count that as a failure. What it does is it erodes your sense of being able to trust yourself. You're not trusting yourself to achieve the goal, and you're not trusting yourself to be kind to yourself if you don't hit that goal.

So instead of being black and white, what I recommend is keeping a victories list every month. This is where you list each and every victory, every action, every start of a project, every completion of a project and so much more. I love my monthly victories list. You have got to build up your sense of pleasure and fun and celebration as part of your journey and release self-criticism.

All right, money goal mistake number six, too equivocating. This is really common in the coaching space. What it sounds like is well, this is my money goal, but what I really want is this number over here. Equivocating creates a feeling of uncertainty. It creates wobbliness. It doesn't have any commitment behind it. What you want to do is you want to choose your money goal, and then you want to fall in love with it. Fall in love with everything it has to teach you about yourself, and fall in love with everything it’s going to show you that you're capable of.

Number seven, judging too early in the year. I know that early in the year there can be this excitement and commitment, and this energy that's really like full throttle, overdrive, right. Then as a couple of months roll by, it's easy to look at where you are at that moment. You may see that you're not on track or what appears to not be on track, or you're not there yet, and then you give up. Don't do that.

A year is a long time. There is plenty of time to course correct and to make new decisions. Plus, you have to remember to do the work, yes. But you also have to remember to let momentum build. Momentum is such a huge, huge factor in making money. So, for example, and in this example, my numbers may be larger than yours, but the example is still valid.

So in my first year of making that one million dollars, 2008, I remember I was like about $750,000 mid-November, early November. Mind blowing amount of money, right? I'm not taking that amount of money for granted at all. But it wasn't my goal.

At that time, there was a moment where I thought I'm not going to reach my goal. I had like this pit in my stomach. It's like my heart just dropped like in an elevator. When you go up the elevator and your heart drops down, it felt like that. I'll never forget it. I thought I'm not going to meet my goal.

In the next moment, I made a different choice. I chose to say no to that thought, and then I got creative. I ended up launching a small high ticket six month coaching group with a great pay in full incentive. Between that and some other payments coming in, I crossed that magical seven figure mark in cash, which means I made 25% of my income that year in the last seven weeks of the year. Amazing, right?

Now if I had given over my power to judging myself and my goal too early, that would never have happened. So give yourself the gift of time and just stay committed to your beautiful, beautiful money goal. Magic can happen when you stay committed. I think the results will surprise you in the most positive way.

Money goal mistake number eight, setting and forgetting. Now I'm not saying you want to be obsessed or hyper focused on your money goal. That's not going to help you. But if you set and forget then there's no emotion. Let's be honest, emotion is one of the biggest contributors to you achieving your money goal.

You need to have connection, an emotional connection. You want to keep your goal front and center of your mind and in your vision and in your energy every day. But in a way that is inspiring and delightful and juicy. So for this, I love a vision board. Oh my gosh do I love a vision board. I love setting my phone password to my money goal. Basically anything that's visual or tactile. Because visual, what you see and what you can feel with your fingertips, it activates key parts of your brain.

All right, so this was a little bit of a longer episode, but I hope you found it really helpful. Money goals are awesome. But you know what else? You are awesome. Money is a powerful catalyst for you to discover so much about yourself. Really, that's the point, isn't it?

If you're looking for a great resource, be sure to check out episode 14 of this podcast, which is the money word of the year. I include in that podcast episode a gorgeous, downloadable checklist that I think you're going to love. I'll link to that episode in the show notes.

All right thank you so much for listening, and I am super excited to connect again with you next week in our next episode. Thank you so much for tuning into this week's episode of The Money Coach School Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, make sure you follow so you never miss an episode. Also, I would so love and appreciate if you would leave a 5-star review. Your review supports women just like you in discovering all of the juicy tips and insights I’m sharing here on how to coach women on money.

And if you want to learn how to excel at coaching women on money, definitely go to KendallSummerHawk.com and check out the wealth of money coach trainings that we have for you. Thanks so much for being part of this money coaching movement and for tuning into the show every week.