Episode 256: Series with Loren Runion (Part 2 of 4)—Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone: Money

256 Comfort Zone pt 2

Megan: Hello, food bloggers. What is up today? How are you doing? Welcome to Eat Blog Talk, the podcast for food bloggers, looking for the value and confidence that will help move the needle forward in your business. 

I am your host, Megan Porta, and you are listening to episode number 256 with Loren Runion. This is part two of a series we are doing on comfort zones and talking about how to get out of our comfort zones in order to grow and learn and move into whole new areas of our businesses.

Today, specifically, we are going to cover the topic of money and how we can so easily get stuck with money because we get stuck in those comfort zones of thinking, I can’t afford this. I’m not worthy of charging that amount of money. There are so many other things we want to talk about inside the episode. So I will let you tune into that. Thank you for joining us. This is such a good episode. I love talking about money. I think it’s so important. We don’t talk about this topic enough. So I hope that you enjoy it as well. 

Welcome to episode two of the Comfort Zone podcast series I’m doing with the amazing Loren. Loren, thank you so much for joining me again on this episode today to talk about money. 

Loren: Yes. Very happy to be here with you again, having a chat about these comfort zones. 

Megan: Yes. So in our first episode, if you haven’t listened to that, go back and listen to it because in that one, we define what this means. It can be a confusing term, changing your comfort zone, going into discomfort. That sounds really scary, but go back and listen to that and then come back and listen to this where we’re going to dive into money and how we should be thinking past our comfort zones. Oh, this is a big one for me. Going into those scary money places, which can actually help us to reap the financial rewards. Between you and I, Loren, we can maybe just define again, what this comfort zone is, what it means, what we’re talking about in regards to money specifically. Do you want to start off with that? 

Loren: All right. So comfort zones and money. This is a really awesome topic. I actually learned about it as I was gathering more information for it. So I think comfort zones in general are just when we start to live our lives in this complacent place. It happens naturally because our brains like us to be really safe. It can happen within our lives and our jobs and our relationships, but for sure, in our money. Problem or I see it as an issue when it is we’re yearning for more.

So we’re talking about money today. When we want to be making more money, but I think, we have these comfort zones on money and for sure are not aware of them. So we’re definitely going to dive into that later, but I think that within those comfort zones of money, lies your money mindset. Money mindset to me is just the beliefs that you have around bringing in money, making it, saving it, where it comes from. Is it easy to get? What do you think about the money mindset and the comfort zones for money? 

Megan: Money is a big one because I feel we all need money and we all need to survive. We need to buy food and we’ve got this pressure to pay our rent or mortgage and all of the bills. So I feel like this is such a big topic because it does come with a lot of pressure. I believe and maybe you can add to this Loren that, some of us stay in our comfort zones because of that pressure. We feel it. Then we stress about it. We overthink it. We worry. This is a common problem in our country. It’s like this endless cycle and we get stuck. So we get stuck in that zone of just comfort. We almost get comfortable complaining too. I don’t know about you, but I have plenty of people in my life. I used to be one of them. So I’m not judging. I think most of us at some point have been at this place where we’re just complaining about the same things over and over regarding money. Whatever your story is. Everyone has a different story. If you listen closely, you can pinpoint oh, there with that. But I was just talking to somebody last night and I hadn’t talked to her in many years. She started saying something about money and it triggered me. I was like, oh my gosh, this is the same thing that she used to say about money 10 years ago. It’s funny how we carry those things. I don’t even know if she knows it, but we do carry these stories with us through our lives until we’re smacked in the face with this reality, that you don’t need to carry those stories with you. You can rewire yourself and rewrite those stories and actually start moving out of that zone of being comfortable with whatever situation you’re in. Even if it’s perceived negatively. So complaining about money or just putting it out there that you don’t have enough. There’s never enough. I can’t pay the bills. I can’t go on vacations. Whatever your story is. That in my mind is considered comfort. 

Loren: Yeah. I agree with that. I think the biggest thing when it comes to money comfort zones, is that people are not aware that they have money beliefs, period. I believe, and I speak from experience and from myself prior to learning a lot about this, that you believe your money situation is a result of your external circumstances. The reality is, whether you like it or not money as energy and money is an exchange of energy and the money you bring into your life and attract into your life is based off of the energy that you’re putting out there. If we have thoughts of not having money or even something, it doesn’t even have to be a lack of money. You could always say that’s too expensive for me, or I could never afford that. That’s going to continue to create that in your life. That is a limiting belief and a comfort zone that you have within money.

I think that we can have these comfort zones. I said this about how much you make, but also the minimum you are comfortable having in your checking account. Maybe you’re okay with having $5 in your checking account. That’s why you keep dropping it down to $5. You don’t ever have money cause you’re super comfortable having it at $5. It could be that way or it could be the reverse and you could have something as far as how much you’re willing to invest or how much you’re willing to charge. All of it stems from the thoughts you currently have about it based off of the beliefs that you’ve brought with you from childhood, essentially. Whoever your caregiver caregivers were that you were raised around is where you developed a lot of this money mindset. One of the things that I read that I thought was really helpful. Because it’s not only the things, and I think we can talk about this in a minute.

It’s not only the things that you have to work really hard for, that’s definitely a limiting belief and a money mindset thing. It’s also how you grew up that developed these financial comfort zones. If you think about it, how hardwired, what your beliefs are, if you grew up very wealthy, Your comfort zone around money is very different from somebody who did not grow up very wealthy. You would be very used to investing a lot of money and you would be very used to spending $600 on a sweater. Your comfort zone on all of those things is very different from someone who did not grow up really wealthy. They had to shop at consignment shops like 99 cents. That’s a very different mindset. What you have to realize when it comes to that is that you can change it. Just because you grew up that way doesn’t mean that you have to continue thinking the same way all of your life. You can change it at any that’s. 

Megan: That’s such a powerful sentence right there. You can change it at any point and it seems ridiculous. When I first heard that concept, I was like, really? I have a lifetime here of all of these crazy money beliefs. I was finally to the place where I was aware of them. But when I thought about the fact that I could actually change them, I was like, what!? That’s so cool. But you touched on so many cool things, Loren. It’s not just about how much money you’re making or how much money you have, but it’s so much more than that. It’s the word you say about what you can and can’t afford. I loved your example of, do you have $5 in your banking account? Is that what you’re comfortable with? Because if it is, that’s going to keep happening until you get past that comfort zone and start getting uncomfortable. This also affects what you are asking people to give you. Are you charging $10 for a course that should be $600? Are you comfortable with $10? Then that’s all you’re ever going to get until you really dig into this.

Also, I just think that this can so directly impact your life and also your business. What you start to magnetize and attract in. That vibe, that money vibe that you put out totally comes back to you. So I am so excited to talk about this. 

Loren: I would like to say a really good quote that talks about why you need to move out of your comfort zone. It’s from a money book. This quote is from the book, Energy Of Money. It says, you may come to see that any distress you experienced in the face of difficulty is a measure of your courage as you move outside your comfort zone. It’s a sign of how much you’re stretching beyond your present capacities or place in life. It shows you are expanding both your skills and your strength.” That’s from a money book. 

Megan: There are also like to go along with that, there are so many resources, like there are so many books and resources that dive into this. There are programs. You name it. You can find it if you do feel like you really need help in this area. There are so many resources that can help you. Hopefully this episode helps you dig into that. But what are some ways to start noticing what you’re saying about money? Obviously self-talk. What are the things you say over and over? Are you saying, oh, I can’t afford that. Or we don’t have the money for that. Because I feel like everyone has those lines, right? If I think back to my family, I know exactly what my mom said and exactly what my dad said. Those are the things that stuck in my head. But beyond just noticing what we’re saying and thinking, what are some other ways that we can start to just really be aware of where we stand with money. 

Loren: I think to add to a couple more of those limiting beliefs that you were saying. I talked a little bit earlier about thinking, do you think money is really hard to come by? I think that’s a huge one. That’s one meaning, money doesn’t grow on trees. People probably grew up with that saying a lot, and that means money is hard to come by. Then you believe that you have to work really hard for your money. I read something that was really good and it compared someone who doesn’t work super hard for their money versus someone who does. So you have someone who is very wealthy, who obviously did work very hard to get that money that they have for the wealth, but they also invest a lot of money. That’s a big key in wealth, is investing. Investing is not hard work, but you’re making a crap ton of money or there’s potential to make a ton of money within that. That is not the same amount of energy that you put into maybe someone who is a cement worker who has to pave the roads for us to drive on. That’s really freaking hard work. That’s not comparable in wage at all to what a huge stock would make versus somebody’s day’s wage who’s laying cement on the ground. So shifting your money mindset from having to work really hard for money and that money doesn’t grow on trees, those were two really big ones for me to have to work through. Then trusting that money always comes in. This is not something I had in my notes, but this has been the biggest breakthrough for me. I think it’s important to talk about because when I first started learning about this and just dabbling in money. When I first started our money situation was not good. Literally $5. It would be because we have no money. I would always be like, oh, we need to budget. I would always be saying we don’t have enough money. I would constantly be worried. If I figured it out on paper, we didn’t have enough money coming in. Yet money always came in. I always paid the bills. It always worked out. It took me a very long time to realize that was happening. It always worked out. Once I realized that, I leaned more into it. Okay. If that always happened, then this is how I use that in my mindset now. So right now, my goal is to make 10K months. I don’t know how I’m going to make 10K next month, but I don’t need to because I haven’t now. I know, and I trust because in the past it always came in that it’s going to come in next month. Shifting into a place of trust, I think is really important when it comes to your comfort zones around money. Expanding that comfort zone. 

Megan: Yeah. That is so powerful. I do think that when you’re doing that, you really have to believe it. Like what you did with the $10,000 months. For me, in the past, I’ve done the same thing. I’ve done the same sort of thing where I’m like, okay, I’m going to have X number of dollars a month. I know that I’ve had it in the past. So I know, I see on paper that it happened. I know it can happen, so I know it can happen again. What I’ve started to do recently is increase that number. Just have so much faith. I know, like I believe this is going to happen. You’ve got to say it and you’ve got a freaking know it in your heart that it’s going to happen. When you do that, it will happen. If you are doing the opposite and saying I can’t afford this and we’re going to have a standard whatever, like $500 a month, then that is what’s going to happen. So it goes back to our first episode when we were talking about what you define for yourself and what you think and what you say is going to come to fruition. It’s the same with money. If you really believe something, either on the low end of the spectrum or the high end of the spectrum. That is what’s going to translate. 

Loren: Yeah. It’s so funny that you brought that up because I actually have a podcast episode that will be coming out. It is exactly about that belief and the trust that it’s going to happen. I talk about how it took me a really long time to get there and I think it’s okay. You can’t judge how long it takes you to get there to that believability. There’s things you can do to help with that. But it took me eight months to think that I was capable of making basically a 100K a year. So last year, I even posted this on Instagram on my stories. Last October, I wrote in my notebook, that here’s where I am and here’s where I want to be. I’m making less than $1,000 a month. I want to be making a hundred thousand dollars a year. For eight months I did not believe it was possible. I could say it in my head and I could do the work and I could do the affirmations. But something in the back of my head was still there. I could hear this little tiny voice and I just kept working at it. One of the things that you can do is called the ladder of believability. What it is that you do believe you can do that is beyond what you’re doing now.

So as I said that going I can’t make a hundred K. So then I was like, okay, I’ll make five K. Then I hit my first 5k month. Then my next one, I was like, okay, seven K. Then I can tell you in July, something shifted and it wasn’t like I did something, I didn’t do anything huge. It just shifted. Was like, I know what’s happening. I trust 100% that it’s going to happen. I don’t know when it’s going to happen. It just is. I hit my first 10K month. Then the next month is a 10 K month. I still don’t know, that could be a total fluke, but I still track it. Just trust that it will. I’m just saying that because it can take a long time to feel that, it can take a long time to believe it and trust it and that’s okay. Because you’re rewiring those subconscious beliefs that are keeping you from thinking that you can do it. Once you shift, just like you said, you become a magnet to that money.

Megan: You said this earlier too, you don’t even have to really know where it’s coming from. You just know that it’s coming and you’ve obviously got balls in the air, things in motion, projects going on, that it could come from, but also be open to new opportunities coming into your life and falling into your lap. You just never know. That’s the cool thing. When we are presented with those new opportunities, we’re like, oh my gosh, that came out of the blue. I had no idea that I could make that much money from this source. I didn’t see it coming. That’s what I’m talking about. You don’t have to think through every part of how you’re going to bring in that money. Just trusting and knowing. It sounds like you got to that point in July which is so freaking cool where you were like, okay, here it is. Something shifted and it just happened. I believe just from hearing your story and my perspective that you will not go past that $10,000 a month. We talked about this in the previous episode, in this series about how when you go past your comfort zone and you go through the ceiling, your ceiling becomes your new floor. I believe that $10,000 a month is your new floor. 

Loren: Oh thank you. I’m still working on that belief. It’s okay. 

Megan: It is, I was gonna say funny and not really funny, but it’s true that you have to align your faith and your beliefs with the words and thoughts that you have because you can’t just say it, you have to get to that place where they totally align. When it does, like you said, you feel it. You felt that shift and you’re like, oh, here I am. It’s happening. It can take a while and going back into the past and why do I have this story in my head? So can we talk about that a little bit? How to dive into this. I don’t know if this is appropriate here, but I could talk about my stories that I had in my head and how I started diving into it.

So I just realized, it was one day, a couple of years ago, I was like, wow. It is really hard for me to make the money that I want to make. Why is that? I just started thinking about it and I was listening to podcasts too, that were like, look into your past. What did your parents say? What does your family believe and all of that? I came to this one line in, or this one belief, that my dad said over and over to me, he still says it to me today. That is, you need to work really hard. Every time he sees me, he asks me, Megan, are you working hard? That’s his gauge of success. I always say yes, because I do work hard. That’s it. Oh, good. You’re working hard. But then when I really thought about it, I looked at his life and saw that he worked hard his whole life, but he never made it above and beyond. They were always needing more. So it was like, you work hard, but then you still don’t have enough. Or you have just enough, maybe that’s a better way to say that. So that was the story that I held with me. I don’t believe that. I was like, no, I do not accept this. So I started breaking it down and I started journaling and just working through that and building myself up. You are worthy of more, Megan. Talking to myself. Just really digging into it. Some of it’s really painful, which kind of goes with this theme of going into discomfort, right? Because going back into our past and rehashing old beliefs and stories isn’t always comfortable. But it was really important. So once I did that, it took me a while and I finally got to this place where I was like, whoa, I don’t need to work super, super hard. I can work less. Guess what I can make more money. So that was my theme for the past year. The money that I’ve been bringing into my business has only been increasing and it’s really cool to watch, but it’s true. I work 25 hours a week and I make a lot more money than I did a handful of years ago. It is worth exploring what your stories are. Some of that stems from family. What are some other ways, or what are some other things or areas that can get in your head? Do you have other examples aside from just parent beliefs? 

Loren: Yeah. One of the other things that I think comes up is that you can’t make more than, insert whoever you want. I can’t make more than my husband. I can’t make more than my parents made. I can’t make more than my coworker. If you’re working a nine to five and have this degree and you’re like, I could never make more than them. It doesn’t matter what the situation is. If you think you can’t make more than them, then that is a limiting belief that you have that’s holding you back in this comfort zone. The other thing that I think, and this gets really abstract and it goes back to this money being energy. I stopped thinking about money being from an effect, meaning from a certain person or a certain job or a boss or whatever. That money comes from a higher source. That money comes from something bigger because it is energy and all energy is stemmed from the same thing. It comes from, for me, God, for anybody else, it could be the universe or higher self or whatever. Focusing your attention on where the money actually comes from and shifting out of that, it comes from, oh, if I don’t get this client that I’m not going to make any money. Oh, if I don’t get Mediavine, then I’m not going to make the money I want with my blog. Shifting out of it, coming from the effect, from a certain person and moving it to believing that it only comes from whatever it is that you want to believe, was a huge shift for me.

Megan: I think that is so important. It’s almost like you’re making someone else responsible for it. Like Mediavine, or whatever, insert whatever person or company, isn’t giving me the money. It’s taking it out of a person’s hands and just putting it into the ether. Wait a second. There’s something bigger here that is controlling, not controlling, but providing the energy.

Loren real quick, I’m going to take a pause and we are going to take a quick break. We will be right back. 

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Just popping in to tell you guys really quick about how awesome the mastermind program is at Eat Blog Talk. I know I’ve talked a little bit about this before here on the podcast. This time I’m going to dive into something different, a different aspect, which is, the guest experts that we are bringing on, which are providing so much magic. As I’m recording this, it is October of 2021, and we’ve got some amazing guest experts lined up. Casey Markee from Media Wyse is coming in on Monday to talk to us. We have Chelsea Cole coming in, Liane from Foodie Digital’s coming in the next couple of months. The amazing Ronsley Vaz, an amazing podcaster and entrepreneur is coming on as well. That’s just within a couple of months. So you don’t want to miss out on the amazingness of the mastermind program in general, but I just wanted to focus on the guest experts for a moment to let you know that it’s pretty dang amazing. So come join us. Go to eatblogtalk.com to join the waitlist. 

Megan: We’re back from the break. And yes, I do realize that I said the word amazing, 97 times just now. So please forgive me. You still love me. So before the break, we were talking about taking the burden off of people’s hands or company’s hands and taking the responsibility out of humans basically, and putting it on something else. Loren, why don’t you continue with that thought? 

Loren: So we have this thought and the thoughts start and your thoughts create your feelings create this vibration and the vibration attracts like vibrations. To start it in action, you have to take action. You mentioned this earlier. You can’t attract money or more money into your life, or a bigger comfort zone in your money by doing the same things you are already doing and by not taking action. The action you take doesn’t equal what you’re going to get back. A very good example of this is because of a brand I’m working with right now. I applied, I did a trial shoot. I thought I was applying for something totally different. Turned out into this gigantic project. Because I put this energy out, what I think was going to come back doesn’t mean it will. Or I pitched to someone who never responded to me and she referred me to a brand. I don’t know how it ever equaled out, but then the brand reached out to me. Just because you take that action, you may think that action is not going to lead to something, but you have to start doing some kind of work for things to start opening up for you. That comes from a higher source.

Megan: Yes. That is a good point too. That you can’t just put the beliefs and thoughts out there and just sit back on the couch and expect the money to start rolling into your bank account. You actually do have to take action. I always say this, when you’re inspired. So don’t work your butt off doing who knows what, and you don’t even know what your goals are. But take that inspired action and take those steps and keep moving forward. I love that you got a source of money revenue from somewhere that you didn’t expect because you took action in another way. That was such a great example. I love that you brought that up. 

Yeah. I think that another thing to think about when you’re thinking of comfort zones, is that it doesn’t even have to be a mindset thing. I mentioned earlier that you can have a comfort sense and I’m not a financial advisor and I am not perfect at any of this. Let’s just throw that out there, but you can have these comfort zones when it comes to spending, saving, debt and earning. When you have these comfort zones, your subconscious brain is actually in charge of this. Because it loves to be safe and because your current comfort zone and belief system may be like, I’m okay having $30,000 of debt. Right now I am 20, so I’m okay with it. If your belief is that’s okay, your subconscious mind is going to allow you to keep changing that and increasing the debt. Or for example, say you were really comfortable with making $50,000 a year. That’s where you can survive. That’s where, like I’m okay here. Pay our bills, barely, whatever that’s where I’m at. Your subconscious mind knows that right now you’re surviving on $50,000 a year. If you suddenly get a job and you’re making $90,000 a year, you may self-sabotage because you’re not aware of these comfort zones and constantly be spending. Or you’ll find yourself in this place where you’re not ever seeing or reaping the benefits of making more money. You always hear this example of, when someone wins the lottery, I don’t know the percentage, but they all blow through it. It’s because of those comfort zones and those beliefs that they have about money. It doesn’t feel safe for them, even though they don’t know that’s what they’re doing, their body is, this is not safe. Get rid of this freaking money. 

That’s a great example. It’s so true. I think it’s like nearly all people who win the lottery, literally go through that. Like you just said, Loren, they don’t even know what’s going on. They’re probably like, whoa, I just had millions of dollars and now it’s gone. The self-sabotage thing is so real. It’s crazy, isn’t it? That we can get back to that baseline by sabotaging ourselves. Wait a second. This is not where I’m comfortable at. We need to get back to that level that we are comfortable at. So how do we start doing that and how do we get really uncomfortable with money? Specifically in business? I have one thought and then I’ll ask you what you think, but personally, I think that if you are at a certain comfort zone with your finances, what you’re bringing into your business and you don’t like it, you want to bring in more, than one way to do that, one way to get uncomfortable is to start investing in things that you know are going to help you grow. Because that, for a lot of people, myself included is very uncomfortable.

So that could be investing in a coach that you know is going to bring you to the next level or investing in a membership or a mastermind or something along those lines, that’s full of people who are going to help you, bring you to the next level, that sort of thing. So what are your thoughts? What are some other ways to just get really uncomfortable with money if we want to go beyond that comfort zone? 

I think just to add to that was a really good point about investing in yourself. It really goes into if you take a look at the person, say there’s somebody out there in the entrepreneurial world or blogging world that you really admire and they’re making so much money and you’re like, I want that. I can do that. That’s what I want to go after. Where are you now? Where is that person and what is it going to take you to get to that? Most likely you can’t stay the person you are now. I can let that come off like tough love. That’s a better word.

You can’t stay who you are now, because if who you are now was able to have the things that you want, you would already have them. So that means that you need to grow and you need to either develop a new skill or you need to work on limiting beliefs, or you need to do something to change who you are now to become the person that it is that has that. That most likely means that you need to gain a new skill, just like you’re saying. So I think that’s a really good way to look at that. You can’t expect to be a photographer and make a hundred K a year, if your photography’s not good. You have to get better at that skill. Then I think that it goes back to the same thing – working on those new normals for yourself. One of the things that I had to start doing when I first started doing all of this work is, when I would spend money because it was before I was making very much within the business and we were just on my husband’s income. So the things were kind of the same. As I was working on shifting my beliefs, I still felt myself go into those thoughts. Oh, I can’t spend money on this or that grocery bill. I always refer to the grocery store because I spend so much money there. Every time I do it, I’m like, oh my God. That’s so much money. One of the things that I read somewhere, same with you, I don’t know where I read it, telling yourself or imagining that you’re giving that person money. By giving that person that money you’ve changed their life, or just shifting that narrative of whatever’s happening on that story that you have right now, very slowly, if you need to help get you out of that comfort zone. To also start becoming the magnet to money that you’re wanting to attract or be like. So for me, if I wanted to be the person that could go to the grocery store and spend whatever money and not worry about it, then I couldn’t be the person that goes to the grocery store every day and worry about how much money I was spending. I had to be the person that didn’t. So I had to come up with a way to trick my subconscious mind to not feel that way every time I went to the grocery store. You can do that through visualizations or journaling but your subconscious mind doesn’t know whether it’s real or not. So I had no idea that I really wasn’t giving that person money. I wasn’t giving them 400 for whatever. So doing little shifts, I think are really helpful. 

That’s so important. I like just like our money stories and everything we’re talking about with the things we carry around and say about money every day. This is the same, like what does that feeling you get in your stomach when you give money to your electric company. Are you like, oh, I have to pay this bill again. Tweaking that a little bit and maybe putting a spin on it. Thank God I have electricity. Or I am so grateful that I get to pay for electricity. 

Loren: Absolutely. 

Megan: You know what I mean? I could be in a third world country right now where I don’t have electricity. So putting a positive spin when you are giving money away and doing that over and over is going to eventually help you to rewrite your stories. But I think it comes back to also being aware of that and just noting. Because I feel like so many of us go through our day’s not even really knowing what we’re thinking or saying. We just do it. We complain about this or that, or have positive thoughts about other things. So being aware. Slowly rewriting those stories and reframing our thoughts. I like that you mentioned visualization. Do you want to talk about that? Do you do that with specifically money and how? How does that look for you? 

Loren: Yeah. First, you touched on gratitude and I think gratitude is huge when it comes to creating more abundance in your life. So it’s not just about having gratitude when you’re writing your bills. It’s about having gratitude for what you have now, whether it’s enough or it’s not enough. For your house that you may not like, and it’s not your dream house, but having gratitude for what you have. Because when. Come from a place of not having gratitude, you’re still coming from a place of lack. Like attracts and that is going to attract more lacke. So coming from a place of abundance and gratitude is so helpful. So I’m glad that you touched on that because you should really be thankful. Think of the smallest thing you can. Sometimes I’m like, I really love my bed. Thank you for my bed. My house isn’t super nice. But I can come up with stuff that I’m really grateful for within my house. The things that I think are really helpful are visualizations. I have two visualizations. One for sure if you sign up for my email, but that was not a plug. I was just trying to figure out where it was. You can have your visual in a couple of ways. One of my favorite ones to do, and I actually do this visualization in the money manifestation challenge that I do. I like to think about money raining down. So I visualize my day, like waking up in the morning and I wake up to the sound of money raining. I think this is friends from a book or something I read again, I don’t know what. I did not come up with this visualization on my own. You think about going throughout your day with the money, just raining down on you. You have to scoop it out of the way. Sometimes visualizations are hard for me, but because I can think of the sound of money and I can think of what it would feel like to push money away from my coffee pot as I pour my coffee, that has been one of the most powerful visualizations that I’ve done. But you can just spend five minutes a day thinking about what your life is going to be like visualizing that version of you that already has all of the abundance that you want and spending time concentrating on that.

If you have a hard time visualizing, I think it’s really helpful to write it out on a piece of paper. Right now, one of the things that I have is I wrote out something like a journal entry and I put it out to the future. So I write it’s December. 31st, 2021. I can’t believe how this year ended. I’m making X amount of money and I wrote out everything that happened, quotations. That’s a visualization, but I’m programming my subconscious mind with that. Every time I’m reading it, because it’s giving my subconscious mind a command to start making those things happen.

Megan: Because the conscious mind doesn’t know the difference between what’s real, what’s in front of us and what’s not. So if you’re visualizing something and you are feeling those emotions, like you’re there and it’s real for you in your head. Then those things start to come to fruition because it doesn’t know the difference.

Loren: It starts to create that for you in many ways. Again, it shifts your beliefs. So you start seeing more of that. You start seeing more of the abundance or it starts opening up ideas. If you think you don’t have money or whatever that comfort zone is around money, if that’s your belief, you’re not going to be able to think of something else. But if you shift that mindset and start opening up that your subconscious mind is going to start allowing more ideas because like we said before in the first episode, or I don’t remember now, it’s the ultimate computer. It tells everything you need to know. So it’s going to help you see things you didn’t see, you wouldn’t have seen before. 

Megan: The visualization I believe is so powerful. You were saying earlier, for some people it’s really hard to visualize. For me it’s not. I don’t know if it’s because I am an avid dreamer. I remember dreams all the time. I can put myself in that, not dream mode, but just picturing mode. So that is a huge one for me. I do that a ton. 

Loren: One of the other things that I feel like is really helpful about helping you regulate your nervous system and your emotions and how you’re feeling within your body around money. Because I think what happens is that you can start working on your mindset, but you’re still so trained within your nervous system to like it when you’re walking to your mailbox and you’re nervous. Like your heart’s oh my God, am I going to get a bill? Your body’s used to all of those things. One of the things that I think are very helpful about getting over limiting beliefs with money, bringing in more abundance, is using something called EFT or emotional freedom technique. It is really powerful when it comes to money mindset. Any time I’m struggling with something, when it comes to money or anytime I’ve taught it to anyone, you automatically feel better and it helps you move out some of those negative blocks. So that’s something else people can look into. I have some on Instagram, on IGTV. There’s all kinds of resources out there. You can reach out to me. I can help you. Even Sam and I from Frosting and Fettuccine, we did a live on money mindset and I went through an EFT there. So there’s tons of free resources out there to do this. I promise that they will help you. 

Megan: I know this is one thing that I resisted for a little bit, because I had heard the same thing from other people. But I finally did it. I looked on YouTube and you can search EFT for literally anything. Like anxiety, money, confidence, fill in the blank with whatever you’re needing. What do you think that is? Is it a distraction from your thinking? Is it a refocus? Why does it work so well? 

Loren: It’s a couple of things, so it actually involves two things. It involves somatics so that you’re actually tapping into the body. It involves your thoughts, so your subconscious mind. To speak to it very generally, you are actually interrupting and creating electrical flows. When you’re tapping on those points, those are your Meridian points in the body and you’re creating and moving energy out that’s stuck. When we have negative thoughts, they get stuck in our body and vice versa when our body is not doing well, things get stuck there. So it creates this effect where if you’re having these negative thoughts around money, they are stuck in your body somewhere and you can tap that out. The way I like to do it is I always teach to tap it out the negative. It helps reduce the way that feels, the way that really bad things feels to you. So when you’re tapping, you’re saying something like, I’m really scared money’s not going to come in this month. You can tap on that the entire time. I’m really scared money’s not going to come in. It lowers the effect that thought has on you. That’s one of the ways that it works. I always encourage people to tap into a positive because when you remove space from one, you’re moving energy out, you want to put positive energy in. Then I always teach people to tap in something positive so that you’re working on reprogramming that subconscious mind along with it. So it’s two things. You’re actually working on the mind and the subconscious and you’re working within the body and moving that energy out. 

Megan: I think if this sounds at all intriguing, if you’re listening and whoa, I’ve never heard of that. Just try it. Go onto YouTube. There are some videos that are really well done that are really short. You can do a three to five to 10 minute video and just follow along. Just trust in it. It might feel weird at first because it did for me for the first few times.

Loren: One of the reasons it can feel weird or it can feel like it’s not working is that you want to say things that really resonate with you and you want to tune into the feelings. So that person may be saying something that doesn’t resonate with you. But once you learn the method, because this is something you can do, anytime. You do not need a practitioner, once you’ve learned how to do it, you don’t need someone to take you through it all the time. To say things that are important to you, or that means something to you. So if it’s not working, it could be that it’s just not saying the right thing quote, unquote pain points for you. 

Megan: We have given so many reasons or not reasons, but we’ve given people so many ways to step out of their comfort zones regarding money. I’m just going to go through what I have done and tell me if I’m missing anything. But you can start just really practicing gratitude. That seems weird, that’s like uncomfortable, but if you’re not in the groove of doing that, it can be really weird and uncomfortable. So gratitude for everything. Every penny you have everything you have. Visualization. Try it. It’s super powerful. I’ve seen amazing things come to fruition in my life from visualization alone. Loren mentioned EFT. Give that a try. Journaling. Find some of those stories that you want to rewrite and limit beliefs that you have around money and just start journaling them out. Notice your self-talk. What are you saying over and over every day that you need to rewrite as well and work on that. Invest in your business. So if you want to improve your skills in certain areas, if you want to improve, whatever comes into your business and your life, then start investing in those right places. Those right people. 

Loren: Really good to do lists. 

Megan: Comprehensive list. So yeah, you guys have a lot to work on. First of all, this is an ongoing process. I am not an expert in money. I am not perfect. So far from perfect. I know Loren would probably say the same thing and there’s no judgment. So anything that’s worked for me has been a long time coming. It’s been a whole lifetime of working on all of this stuff. Some of it without even knowing. I am not judging anyone. I’m not saying you should stop thinking those thoughts about money because we all do it. We’ve all been there. This comes from a place of love and just wanting to raise up our community. Just being a woman entrepreneur, honestly, just helping each other, lift up and earn more money, earn the money that you’re worth and feel that you’re valuable and you’re worthy and all of that good stuff. Okay. I think we covered. This episode actually went a lot longer than Loren and I anticipated. We thought that we wouldn’t have this much to discuss, but it turns out we did and money is important. Maybe that’s really quick. Just because you want money or you want to expand your circle of what you bring into your business. It’s not greedy. That’s a limiting belief in itself. I thought that for a long time. Because honestly, I was raised to believe that. If you have money or if you want more money than what you have or what’s comfortable, then you are being greedy. That took me a while to understand. Oh, that’s something that was programmed into me, to use Loren’s words. I had to rewrite that story. So I just wanted to bring the whole greed aspect of it up as well. 

Loren: Your money is evil. 

Megan: Money’s evil. Movies from the eighties when they portrayed all the bad people were all really rich and wealthy. I think that some of that is programmed into us as well. I grew up seeing all of that on the screen and believing it. Like, oh, that evil jerk. That evil, rich jerk, what is he thinking? 

Loren: That’s a perfect example of how, as I mentioned before, we have these beliefs, but they’re not facts. The truth is that money is going to amplify whatever it is that you already are. If you are able, it probably is going to make you more evil. If you were a good person and you’re a generous person, it’s going to make you more generous. You can see examples of that all over. Whatever it is that you believe, if you believe that it’s evil, then you’re going to find those examples. But there’s also just as many examples of how good money can be for the world and how people use it for good. It definitely, I think that’s a huge one, actually, that I’m glad we did say before we ended. 

Megan: The good things that you are going to do when you have excess money, need you. Those causes or maybe those people you support or the VAs or other people that you hire, they need you. So that’s always a good way for me to refocus and say, oh, wait a second. It’s not greedy because I’m not going to be an evil, greedy jerk with the abundance of money. I am going to do good things with it. I’m going to support the causes that I believe in. I’m going to hire people who need the work. I think that’s just such a good way to look at it. If you are a good person, like Loren said, you are going to do good, generous things with money. You’re not going to be those evil men in the eighties movies. I think that’s a great way to end. Loren’s audience isn’t specifically blogging, but we are going to touch on blog traction, because Eat Blog Talk’s audience is mostly bloggers and we’re also going to touch on new skills and how we can break free of our comfort zones in those areas. So tune into that episode. We’ll see you back here then, and thank you Loren so much for this amazing conversation.

Loren: All right. Thank you, Megan. 

Outro: We’re glad you could join us on this episode of Eat Blog Talk. For more resources based on today’s discussion, as well as show notes and an opportunity to be on a future episode of the show, be sure to head to eatblogtalk.com. If you feel that hunger for information, we’ll be here to feed you on Eat Blog Talk.