This was really hard to say out loud…

"I have had a lot of financial shame and anxiety around money."

But here is what I know, and teach, through the Propeller Experience “You cannot outperform your self-image”- said by Maxwell Maltz. 

Which means, if you want to change your relationship with money, we have to first look inward - at the stories and beliefs we have about money and how we feel about it. 

"I have an unhealthy relationship with money." Wow. Those words were really hard to say out loud. 

I’ve been told since I was young that I was terrible with money, that I couldn’t stick to a budget to save my life and that I was too generous. I was told that I was making bad choices about how I was paying off my student loans and I “should” be more responsible. 

Later, I was told that my non-traditional career meant I was not financially responsible. I didn’t have a house or retirement plans set up. Where were my savings? Around the same time, someone made an off-hand comment about my salary being a “rounding error”. 

By this point, I believed I was incapable when it came to money. 

Then I became a stay at home mum, where I earned no money and became completely dependent on my husband. He works in finance and I am terrible with money so naturally, he took charge of all of our finances. 

When I started my entrepreneurial journey I held these beliefs (without even being aware of it). 

• I’m bad with money. 
• I don’t understand finances (FYI - I majored in Business and Finance). 
• I can’t earn money. 
• I need someone else to support me. 
• If I leave my husband, I won’t be able to earn enough to support my family or myself. 
• No one will pay me for this. 
• I’m not worthy of being paid for this. 

My prices were too low to actually pay myself and anytime money did come in, I gave it away - to contractors, as grants, as gifts. The messages kept repeating… I am terrible with money, I can’t earn money. 

And then, I went on a retreat with a number of widely successful women entrepreneurs. This is what I learnt. 

• I wasn’t the only entrepreneur not paying myself.
• I wasn’t the only one worried about my ability to support my family and myself in the event of death or a divorce. 
• I wasn’t the only one afraid to look at my business bank account at the end of the month. 
• I wasn’t the only one who had financial shame and anxiety. 
• I wasn’t the only one who had a misaligned self-image. 

This revelation was priceless and it is why we launched the Money & Financial Services Discovery stream with Canada Life. 

Women and Men face different financial challenges and realities over the course of their lives. When you consider, that on average, women:

• Have longer life spans
• Get paid less 
• Have more disrupted work histories which moves them in and out of the paid labor force more frequently. 
• Bear the main responsibility for rearing children
• Take on the added financial burden of caring for aging family members. 
• Finally, after years of having their financial lives intertwined with the lives of others, they face the prospect of years on their own following divorce or the death of a spouse and the launching of children 

All of the above impacts the financial reality and overall health and well-being of Women. 

Not. Any. More. In order to change our financial results and our relationship with money, we need to first understand our money stories. 

So here we are. We have built out a discovery stream in our Propeller Experience to support your journey to financial independence. As with everything we do here at tellent, it starts first with mindset. 

We’re kicking off this stream and our journey together on December 8th in Toronto at the Verity Club - a private women’s only club. Where we will be joined by Vanessa Bowen, Money Manager and founder of Mint Worthy Co. 

Your road to financial independence starts here.