Almost every day over the past couple of weeks, I’ve received a message from somebody saying something to the effect of…
“I want to join Creator’s Circle, but I don’t feel ready financially…”
It is also followed up with something like…
“I just want to put the intention out there…” or “Next time I’ll be ready…”
I’ve been challenging some of these people to think differently and it struck me that this is worth sharing more widely since ‘money’ is often a place where people lose connection to their power to create.
To people who say the $14,500 investment in Creator’s Circle is something they aren’t ready for, my response is usually some version of “Bullshit!”
I explain that I am not calling bullshit on them personally. I am calling bullshit on their thinking.
For my clients, I am a warrior on the side of their infinite capacity to love and create. My work is to defend them from the thinking that gets in the way. This is what I mean when I say I am a ‘Champion’ for who you are.
One of the reasons we made the fee for an entire year of Creator’s Circle so low is so that if you really want to do it, you can come up with the money.
Anyone who lives in the developed world can access $14,500.
This is why when someone says they can’t or don’t know how, we challenge that they are distracting themselves from the real reasons.
Acknowledging the real reasons we aren’t doing things is fundamental to developing our capacity to create.
What people really mean is something like, “I don’t want to take the action to produce it” or “I don’t want to take on debt”, both of which are undesirable usually because they are uncomfortable.
Now, let’s look at THIS.
When I speak with people about joining Creator’s Circle, I find that most commonly they aren’t doubting me – they are doubting themselves!
So really what people are saying is, “I am uncomfortable investing in myself.”
Without acknowledging it, many people actually consider themselves to be a high-risk investment.
Why? What’s that about? And when’s that going to change? Do people think they’re going to wake up one day and suddenly find they’re worth investing in?
If you haven’t noticed already, this is a trap. First, a person doesn’t trust themselves to do what they say they will, and then, second, they validate this lack of trust by failing to take action that would prove otherwise. Repeat cycle.
There’s only one way out of a bind like this. It is to speak and act differently – to speak and act deliberately contrary to the habitual story and evidence.
This week I shared with one of my clients that when someone told me they wanted to join Creator’s Circle but didn’t have the cash, I had responded to them by saying, “Well, then put it on a credit card and let’s change that!” When I shared this, my client’s face went funny like somebody had passed a foul smell in front of her nose.
‘Debt’ is one of the areas of money that is most uncomfortable for people. Being awkward around money in any way will keep it out of your life. Nobody I’ve ever met who is powerful with money gets uncomfortable talking about any aspect of it.
When I was about 22 years old, I was lucky enough to come across Robert Kiyosaki’s books and learn about money and debt in a way that typically only the children of wealthy people do.
One of the simplest and most important things I learned was the difference between using debt to buy an asset versus using debt to buy a liability. The former was wise in that it created the possibility for greater wealth whereas the latter only took from you. Most ‘personal debt’ is actually ‘consumer debt’. This means the money borrowed was spent on liabilities; things that only diminish in value over time. Personally, I’ve used very little debt for consumption in my life. But I have used a lot of debt for investing in assets!
I bought my first house with no money. And the second. And the third. And the fourth. In fact, I don’t even know how many houses I bought and sold in my twenties, but I do know that I never spent a single dollar of my own money. I always used other people’s money, a.k.a. ‘debt’.
When I started my web media company, there were times I used a credit card to float us while new projects were coming in. I once paid a whole bunch of subcontractors for a website project while using the equity line on my house.
When I started my coaching business, I hired my first two coaches using a credit card. In fact, over the first couple of years, I probably went into debt by $50,000 or more. Since then though, I’ve made millions of dollars in income as a coach. Not a bad return!
Debt doesn’t bother me. That’s not because I don’t care or because I’m not responsible. It is because of something my father, a successful entrepreneur, once said to me.
“Don’t get down about your debt. The only reason you have it is because you’ve taken on a risk most people don’t have the balls for.”
(My Dad’s a bit old-school with his language!)
He was right that I should be proud of my courage rather than ashamed, but only because the money I borrowed was being used for investing in assets (i.e. property, labor…MYSELF) and not liabilities (vacations, televisions, etc).
People have no problem with companies taking on debt. In fact, it is often considered the best solution for accelerating the growth of a company. We even have television shows like Shark Tank & Dragon’s Den where people compete to take on debt in the form of investors buying shares in their company.
This brings us back to a point I was making earlier.
Do you consider yourself an asset worth investing in or a liability?
Let me be clear: I’m not giving you investing advice. Just because I told one person to ‘go get a credit card so you can work with us’ doesn’t mean I recommend this to everyone. Some people hire coaches in the same way they buy televisions. If you hired us coming from that place, then your work with us would be a liability!
You are the one who decides if investing in Creator’s Circle (or anyone’s coaching) is going to be a liability or an asset. You are the one who decides if you are an asset worth investing in.
My mentor Steve charges $200,000 for 100 hours with him and the fee is paid in full, upfront. The moment I transferred my money to him, I remember thinking: “Holy shit! What if he dies?!”
Understanding that my power to create begins with generating answers to my own questions, I decided that even if he died before our coaching was over, I would continue to fly to Phoenix twice per month and sit in his office by myself. I’d read his notes and his books, coach myself and create 10x my investment without him. I decided then and there that my coach being alive during our coaching program would be a bonus.
This is an example of how I CREATE my own coaching investments as an asset rather than a liability and how I CREATE myself as an asset that is worth investing in.
This is why what I care most about with our clients is that they are committed. If you are committed, then I don’t care how you come up with the money for our work together (as long as it’s legal), because you will create results.
Seeing yourself as a highly investable asset is a choice. It is a choice to be made decisively and constantly.
I am an asset. I am an asset. I am an asset. I am an asset.
This is how you create your world.
You start by declaring a reality contrary to the evidence of circumstances past and present.
By doing this, you produce a useful and generative confirmation bias. This feeds you from the inside out and then like when a seed finally sprouts through the soil, the world starts providing you with tangible evidence.
From here, a virtuous cycle begins.
The sunlight of new income hits the chlorophyll of your soul and the roots you willed through your shell reach even deeper into the soil.
What before you carried is now carrying you.
You stretch, reaching higher and higher, and before you know it you are standing tall and immovable looking down from a height where before you looked up to.
As it always is, the view from above is more than you imagined it would be.
You are an asset. You are an asset. You are an asset. You are an asset.
Loving you, JP
