How to Make More Money Than A Drug Dealer

There's been a lot of talk on the Rowdy forum lately about how "hard" it is to make money.

In fact, my clients go to great effort to prove to me how difficult money really is. And how very wrong I am to think that they are completely able to make lots of it.

They tell me lengthy stories of how particularly special they are. How they are the one-and-only afflicted with this abundance-deficiency. How it's just too challenging. Their business is different. Their clients are different. Their service is different. Their product is different. 

How making money is just too difficult. Out of their league. Too complicated. 

And I love these women. And I absolutely understand their stories. I used to believe stories like this too. But it's my job to help them change their stories. It's my job to help show them a different way to approach money.

We are all susceptable to this line of thinking. That money is nearly impossible. Almost magical.

We let ourselves fantasize about the 'easy' life. The one where riches just fall at our feet. And clients line up from here to eternity. And we never have to worry about where our next paycheck is coming from. We have cash lined up in stacks in every room of our mansion. And bling on every toe.

We fantasize about being a drug dealer. (Oh - just me?! Woops. Ok- for the sake of the story just go with me on this one.)

Seriously. Have you ever heard of a poor drug dealer? 

As a career choice - I'm pretty sure that across the board we've been told (by Hollywood - a reliable source) that they make a lot of money.

And if they can make a lot of money.

We can easily make more.

Here's why:

1. When you're a drug dealer, you put yourself at risk of jail, assault or death. 
2. When you're a drug dealer, your customers put themselves at risk of jail, assault or death.
3. When you're a drug dealer, the product your sell is unhealthy and harms and sometimes even kills your customer.
4. When you're a drug dealer, your client base is limited to a troublesome niche of addicts, emotionally irrational and unpredictable people. 
5. When you're a drug dealer, you can't have a website, blog, nor can you tweet. Your business is limited literally to face-to-face recommendations.
6. When you're a drug dealer, you can't just head down to the post office to ship your products, nor can you offer 1-click-shopping. Your shipping and payment systems become extraordinarily more complicated.
7. When you're a drug dealer, you're paid in cash. And that works at the grocery store - but try buying a house with a tractor bucket full of cash - that's a quick ticket to jail. You've got to come up with complex methods of converting cash into usable money.  

So - with all of these hindrances (a few little things like pain, death and jail) - how on earth are they able to make so much money?

Simple answer: they sell something that people want.

This is really important - so let me repeat it.

They sell something that people want. A lot.

Making money isn't difficult at all.

It's actually quite simple.

Put your focus on creating something that people want.

Instead of trying to make people want your something.

Subtle difference in wording.

Gigantic difference in results.

Make yourself desirable.

Make the service you offer desirable.

Make the product you sell desirable.

And when you hear that voice in the back of your mind saying, "This is too hard."

Shake your head, smile and say,

"At least I'm not a drug dealer."

Wanna change your relationship with money? Join us for a month of intensive money work.

September Classes:
How to Think About Money (September 5)
How to Think About Earning (September 12)
How to Think About Spending (September 19)
How to Think About Debt (September 26)

Sign up for $99: http://moneylovelife.ning.com/  

For more information about the community click here: http://meadowdevor.squarespace.com/rowdies/

Reverence for Old Injuries

 

Anyone who has had knee-replacement surgery knows that they need to be careful with their new parts. They know that this old injury can rear its head again easily. They wouldn’t set out to run a marathon without being mindful of what their leg has already been through. Even though they may be healed and they may be able to do most things - there is a reverence for this area of their body. A carefulness. 

If we are wanting to create meaningful and lasting change, we need to know where our old injuries lie. We need to know what 'leg to favor.' Where to be careful with ourselves. Otherwise, we are prone to re-injuring ourselves.

When I was pulling myself out of debt, I got cocky and over-estimated my relationship with money. And with myself.

I thought I was totally healed up. And in a hurry to be better.  

I quickly slipped back to semi-consciousness and fell into the same old habits. My wake-up call was a couple of bounced checks, a deposit that was never completed and a barrage of checking fees due to my negligence.  

Money is an old injury of mine. And I need to continue to view this part of my life with respect instead of arrogance. With reverence instead of superiority.

When I am mindful of this, I favor that leg. I know that I’m prone to injury and to weakness there. I am careful with myself. Careful with my money. And I don’t over-estimate my relationship with it. 

This doesn’t mean that I am justifying my behavior. The exact opposite. It means that I'm aware of my patterns and my habits and know where my strengths and weaknesses are.

Money might not be your 'old injury.' Yours might be food. Cigarettes. Vodka. Or ex-boyfriends.

The point here is to know ourselves. Know where our injuries lie. Don't overestimate our healing process. And know that that we may need to favor our injured legs. And that we might be prone to injury in this area for longer than we think. 

When we respect our old injuries, we show love and care for ourselves and our future. 

And with love and care. 

Time and patience.

We can help ourselves heal.

Saturation Point

 

I want it. 

But how much should I spend on it?

I used to just spend what I wanted. When I wanted to. Without giving thought to how much I was spending. 

I used to believe that spending more meant I was buying higher quality. And that spending less meant a better deal.

I didn’t give conscious thought to what I wanted to spend. I allowed the item, or the situation, to dictate its price to me - and I blindly followed.

I reacted to situations. I reacted to the price tag. I justified something if I wanted it enough.

I didn’t have my own personal idea about value. Or about what something was worth to me. Or about what the exchange of dollars really meant.

I was living in the world of instant gratification.

If I wanted something. I got it. And most of the time I didn’t even look at the price tag.

This is the very foundation of impulse buying.

If you haven’t taken the time to know what you want. And you haven’t consciously decided how much you’d like to spend. 

No worries.

Marketers will decide for you.

They know that they can seduce you with a sale.

Or a brightly placed display.

Or an “Only 3 left.”

They know that they can tell you why it’s urgent to spend. Now. This much.

And that it works.

I’ve spent thousands upon thousands of dollars unconsciously reacting to what the market-place offered.

I rolled out of a car lot with a brand new car. (Just take it over-night and see how it looks in your garage.)

I bought a Gucci dress that I couldn’t afford. (It was 30% off! When is Gucci ever on sale.)

I ordered a $400 bottle of wine at dinner - knowing full-well that I have allergies and can’t taste the difference between a $10 bottle and a $400 bottle. (Ordering the sommelier’s suggestion will make me seem so chic and knowledgable.)

So, either you can do it my way - and impulse spend yourself into a big black hole of debt - before you learn your lesson.

Or. You can learn a few tricks and apply them to your relationship with money. 

The way we think about a purchase determines the way we feel about it. And my goal is to help you deliberately feel good about any transaction. 

My favorite money feeling is abundance. It’s a feeling that comes from open, generous, there’s-plenty-of-everything thinking.

If you can’t find a way to feel abundant, then it’s not something you should spend your money on.

The price definitely influences the way we think about our purchases.

If the price is too low, we tend to see the item as cheap, untrustworthy, poorly made, and not as valuable. If the price is too high, we tend to see the item as not worth the exchange, not worth the commitment,  untrustworthy, or a rip-off.

There is a sweet spot for every transaction. It’s what I call the Saturation Point. It’s the point where the price is saturated with as much abundance as it can hold.  This point isn’t necessarily an exact dollar amount. The Saturation Point is typically a small price range made up of a low point and a high point. 

The high point is where paying a higher price diminishes the abundance. It’s the point of diminishing returns. When the price is raised past this point - the item doesn’t continue to improve for us. This is completely subjective and will change from person to person. It’s not about actual value - it’s about what we personally value. If the item’s price is higher than this - it’s better to keep our money rather than to buy the item.

The low point is where paying a lower price diminishes the abundance. It’s where the item isn’t worth ‘the deal.’  It seems too cheap. The item has lost it’s value. Again, this is completely subjective and will change from person to person. It’s about what we individually value. If the item’s price is below this point - it’s better to keep our money rather than to purchase the item. 

When we don’t know our Saturation Point - we are more exposed and reactive to marketing.  We spend too much on something because we are told that the higher price makes it better.  Or we spend too little on something because we want to get a better deal, or get it now, and therefore sacrifice what we are really wanting.

We can determine our Saturation Points for any item. Big, medium or small. For instance, a cup of coffee. My Saturation Point for coffee looks like this. 

Spending under a dollar makes me suspect that the coffee might be gross. Especially at a liquor store or gas station. Don’t get me wrong, it might be the best coffee in the world - but it doesn’t matter because I’ll never know. 

The Saturation Point is my story about what I want to pay. It’s not necessarily based on reality. It’s based on my story. And my story says that coffee priced under a dollar at a place that also sells Twinkies and lotto tickets is probably pushing dehydrated gray powder that they put into murky tap water and try to pawn off as coffee. Yuck. 

Spending $1 on coffee is still a little suspect. I’d have to see where it came from. I’d probably smell it. Look at the color. If it’s being sold in a styrofoam cup - then no. If it’s in a paper cup. Then yes. 

$2 feels good. That’s a typical price for good coffee (in my mind.) That’s coffee house coffee. Dark black. Smells great. Even in my mind.

$3 still feels good. This is definitely on the high side of my Saturation Point. If it was in an airport, or mall, or some other place where there’s the convenience factor that I’m paying for - then it would be a yes. But if this $3 cup was just an average coffee house - in an among other coffee houses. Then no.

$4 doesn’t feel good anymore. It’s too much to pay. I don’t want to spend that much on coffee. And I don’t care how good it is at that point. It’s past my Saturation Point.

So, dollar by dollar, I determine my Saturation Point for a cup of coffee. Anything between 2-3 dollars feels good to me. Paying more than $3 doesn’t add more abundance or more value for me. Paying under $2 doesn’t add more abundance or more value for me. 

The important thing to know is at what point does spending more (or less) money on an item make the item (or purchase) better?

At what point does spending more (or less) make the item (or purchase) worse?

This can apply to small things on your grocery list like a loaf of bread, avocados, or bananas. I’m not willing to buy a bunch of bananas for $1. If the price is too low on bananas, I don’t feel good about paying my money toward an industry that might be promoting unfair and unsafe work practices. When I pay a higher price for bananas, I find my Saturation Point. I like supporting fair-trade bananas. Yet, I am not willing to pay $10 for a bunch of bananas. At that point, it is higher than my Saturation Zone - and I have stopped feeling abundant about the price.

Knowing your Saturation Point for big-ticket-items helps simplify the purchasing process. Know what you’re willing to spend on a car, a vacation, a new computer, or a house. And that it’s based on feeling good - rather than on the market or the merchant.

On a larger scale, we can look at the total amount of possessions we own in terms of Saturations Points. We have houses, cars, toys, clothes, and vacations. The money that we spend on these things can add immense value to our lives. It can make our lives easier, better.  But past the Point of Saturation, spending more actually makes our lives more complicated and worse. The bigger house, the better cars, the extra stuff, the storage units, the food we throw away each week, the toys that are bursting out of our kids closets. These things do not make our lives more abundant. They don’t create ease. They don’t simplify our lives. They do not bring more joy. They bring more headaches, more need for storage, more time for organization.

Instead of having the money in the bank, we have a piles of stuff.

This isn’t about not-buying. This is about really understanding what you desire and why. It’s about determining your own value system - and trusting yourself. It’s about caring about yourself. And your money.

When we spend our money mindlessly, without checking in on our Saturation Points, we may spend too much. And spend money that we regret. Or we may spend too little. And may settle for something that we really didn’t want.  

I want you to have what you truly want. I want you to have a rich and meaningful life. 

I want you to allow yourself to have the things that you desire. 

And. I also want you to have money in the bank. 

What a Lemon Tree Taught Me About Money

I have an over-achieving lemon tree in my back yard.

It's a small tree. It doesn't take up a lot of space.

But it is serious about lemon production.

It's not like a regular citrus tree with its arms reaching up to the sun. It more like a weeping willow with heavy lemon-laden branches. 

There are at least five hundred lemons on it right now. (I didn't count... just go with my story here.)

When I first moved in, it was spring.

I thought lemons were in season.

And I picked tons of them.

And tried to use them all.

And then they rotted on my counter tops.

And the lemon tree kept on making lemons.

Summer came.

Still lemon season.

I ignored the tree.

The lemons fell on the ground and ended up getting mowed into the lawn.

And the rest went to compost.

And the lemon tree kept on making lemons.

Fall came.

And with it came the heat of the Indian Summer.

And hundreds of lemons ripened and fell.

And the lemon tree kept on making lemons.

Christmas came and went.

We made lemonade.

And that tree kept on making yellow ornaments.

The entire first year - I watched it.

Expecting lemon season to stop.

Being worried that I wasn't using them.

Worried that they were going to waste.

Worried that someday I might really need a lemon and that I didn't enjoy the lemons in the right way.

At the right time.

Three years later...

I now know that it's always lemon season in my back yard.

I cook everyday with lemon.

I put it in my water.

I use it for tea.

I have trained myself to use more lemons on purpose.

Every morning I go out an pick lemons.

By the next day. The fruit bowl is empty.

And it's time to pick more.

Four or five a day. Sometimes more.

And still.

My daily lemons don't even make a dent.

My tree still looks a weeping willow.

And there are still lemons all over the ground.

I now love my lemon tree.

I love picking the lemons.

And using the lemons.

And knowing that it's always going to be lemon season.

I love knowing that I always have more lemons than I need.

Even when the recipe might call for 10 or even 20 lemons.

It's not going to wipe out the lemon supply.

It's impossible.

My lemon tree grows them faster than I can keep up.

Which got me to thinking...

Wouldn't it be cool if we could think about money in the same way that I now think about my lemon tree?

We would stop being worried that this is "money season."

We would stop feeling pressured and afraid that we will run out.

We would stop forcing it to grow faster.

Or slower.

We would know that hording it - for fear that there will be a day that we won't have it - makes it rot.

We would know that ignoring it - for fear that we don't have what it takes to be responsible to it - kills our enjoyment of it.

We would know that when we use it - even when we use a lot of it - we don't wipe out the supply.

There will always be more.

What if we had the same faith in money that I have in my lemon tree?

What if we knew that there would always be more than we need?

That the tree will keep on making more than we can use.

Maybe then, we could just relax.

And pick the few we want for today.

Appreciate our beautiful trees.

And know that there will always be more for tomorrow.