Millionaire Women, Millionaire You
By Stephanie J. Hale
Published by Troubador Publishing Ltd at Smashwords
Copyright: Stephanie J. Hale 2010
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Contents
Chapter One: Sandy Forster
The single mother on benefits who went from being $100,000 in debt… to creating a million dollar business in 5 years.
Chapter Two: Jennifer Hough
The entrepreneur who overcame mounting debt and 5 years of chronic illness… to build one of the largest holistic nutrition clinics in Canada.
Chapter Three: Sharon Lechter
The co-author of the international bestseller, Rich Dad, Poor Dad - the book that became the cornerstone of a billion dollar publishing empire.
Chapter Four: Ali Brown
The information marketer who was once so broke she couldn’t draw money from an ATM… then went on to build a seven-figure business.
Chapter Five: Barbara Corcoran
The entrepreneur who got Ds in school & college… then built a billion dollar property business after quitting her job as a waitress.
Chapter Six: Gill Fielding
TV’s ‘Secret Millionaire’ who played in the gutter as a child… and dreamed of filling Shakespeare’s Complete Works with a bank note on every page.
Chapter Seven: Rachel Elnaugh
The former ‘Dragons’ Den’ entrepreneur and mother-of-five whose business, Red Letter Days, turned over £100 million in the 16 years she ran it.
Chapter Eight: Rev. Teri Hawkins
The inspirational speaker paralyzed by a car accident as a teenager… who defied doctors’ predictions to become a world-class athlete and a millionaire by age 30.
Chapter Nine: Linda Franklin
The first Canadian woman to own a seat on the New York Stock Exchange… after starting out as a secretary without a college education.
Chapter Ten: Lynne Franks
The PR guru who founded a global company at her kitchen table when she was 21… and is said to be the inspiration for Jennifer Saunders’ sit-com ‘Absolutely Fabulous’.
Chapter Eleven: Lynda Dyer
The world-renowned speaker and trainer almost killed by a debilitating illness… who left her job vowing: “the next million I make is going to be mine.”
Chapter Twelve: Susan Sly
The mother who overcame bankruptcy, homelessness and multiple sclerosis… to generate over $50 million sales.
Introduction
Imagine this your parents come to visit and there's a hooker making out with a client in broad daylight right outside your home. Or this you're walking back from school and pass two neighbours who offer you white powder. Your son thinks they’re selling sherbert. Or even this a friend drops by and there's a wino sleeping in a pool of urine just outside your gate.
Most nights you hear men fighting outside, women screaming, or cars getting smashed.
This was my life a few short years ago. Let me tell you, it wasn't a lot of fun. My car was written off by a joy rider shortly after we moved in. I lost count of the times I called the police because of violence in the street.
Believe it or not, this was a step up from my previous home. That one had water pouring in through the ceiling, toadstools the size of saucers growing in the bathroom, and green mould on most of the furniture. I couldn’t hang out washing without it getting nicked. One of my neighbours stole my credit card while I was unloading my groceries. Worst of all, a four-year-old was raped on the nearby field where I used to take my son kite flying. It was this shocking event that spurred my desire to learn about wealth creation. This was no place to bring up children.
The question I continually asked myself during these difficult years was: “How did I get here?” One minute I'd been living in a nice house, driving a nice car, leading a nice lifestyle in a nice part of the city. The next, whoomph! Pretty much overnight, I was a single mother and wondering what hit me. But the truth was I had only myself to blame. Up to this point, I'd taken no responsibility whatsoever for my financial destiny. Saving & investment? B-o-r-i-n-g! Financial spreadsheets. You what? Monthly outgoings? Ask my husband. Truth was, I hadn't the first clue how to manage money, how to invest money, how to grow money. It just wasn’t something that had been on my agenda. I’d been walking into disaster with my eyes wide shut, blindly hoping for the best. If I hadn't found this out when my marriage broke up, I sure as hell would have found out when I hit retirement age.
I spent the next few years reading everything I could get my hands on. I bought books, signed up to newsletters, attended workshops, and sought out mentors. I was working full-time, as well as evenings and weekends, to make ends meet. But in what little free time I had, all I did was study.
First, I set up my own publishing consultancy to help authors write and market their books. Then, because I knew it was important to have multiple streams of income, I learned to trade equities, commodities and Forex. I was thrilled when several years later, I was taken on as a coach at one of the UK’s leading trading schools.
Things seemed to be taking a nosedive in 2008, when I was faced with a year of health challenges. But that difficult period again turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It not only prompted me to write this book, but I also co-founded The Millionaire Bootcamp for Women – and invited 10 millionaire speakers from around the world to share their top secrets and strategies with other women.
Hurdles? There have been plenty along the way. I’ve made stupid mistakes that have lost me money. I've placed trades that have gone belly-up. I’ve launched projects that have failed to make a penny. Countless times, I’ve felt so crushed that I’ve wanted to give up. And always, there’s been a nagging guilt that I haven’t been a good enough mother because I’ve had to spend so much time working.
High points? If you seek out help, you find it. You eventually find an answer. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the kindness of numerous mentors who were happy to share their expertise - a half-hour here, lunch there, numerous phone calls. I’ve learned powerful tips and strategies that would have taken me years to discover on my own. There have been the friendships I've forged with other entrepreneurs on a similar path. Every day, I’ve grown in knowledge and experience. Slowly, but surely, I’ve come to understand the principles that seemed so incomprehensible when I first heard them. Most rewarding is the awareness that I’m a role model for my three children. They too can take control of their destiny. They can one day choose a life that makes their hearts sing.
Pretty much every millionaire I've spoken to in this book has a story of hardships or personal challenges overcome. Every journey has been different, yet somehow similar. It’s not so much about the ‘how’ as the ‘why’. Whatever situation you are in today, I hope this book will offer you insights and inspiration. You too can change your circumstances and lead the life you dream of. Just make the decision today. Every journey, no matter how long or far, begins with a single step.
To your success
Stephanie J. Hale
Chapter One
Sandy Forster
Sandy Forster is a millionaire mindset mentor, a best-selling author, an international speaker and an award-winning business owner. She was recently given the International Mentor of the Year Award for 2008. Just six years ago, she was a single mother on welfare and was $100,000 in debt.
Q: Did you always think that you would be as successful as you are today?
I wanted to be successful. I didn’t even know that success was something I was achieving. But having struggled financially having been on welfare and $100,000 in debt - I just so wanted to be wealthy. I wanted to be a millionaire. I just thought that I had been born into the wrong life and the wrong body. So, I absolutely wanted more. I don’t think I ever imagined that I would have created the success that I have, or that I would be living a lifestyle that is so incredible and beyond anything I could have imagined. So half and half: half of me absolutely wanted it, but the other half never believed that I could actually create it.
What was the single turning point in your life that turned things around for you?
I guess two incidents. First of all, I think the biggest thing for me was discovering the ‘law of attraction’. I discovered that what we think about, where we put our focus, what we talk about, where we put our emotions - that is what actually creates our today and our tomorrow. So the first incident was discovering the law of attraction, and understanding that I had a say in how my life unfolded. I could actually choose to focus on what I wanted instead of how things were or how things used to be. This is what a lot of people do: they tend to create the same old thing over and over. Discovering that was a huge turning point for me.
I had been working with the law of attraction for a number of years, and I’d been going from that place of being on welfare to bringing money in. I wasn’t a millionaire and I wasn’t even wealthy at that stage, but I was seeing more money pouring in my life than I have ever had before. The money would come and it would go, it would come it would go. Then I created an idea for a programme with a business partner – it was based on using the law of attraction as a mindset side of the programme, with practical strategies to create prosperity. This programme was called Wildly Wealthy Women. It was instantly a success - we had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of women join the programme.
I remember going to the local Target store. (It was a store with a bit of everything: clothing, hardware, kids’ stuff.) I remember walking down the aisle of Target knowing that I had to buy a blender, because I love making fruit smoothies in the mornings. It’s my passion. I get beautiful, fresh fruit and blend it all up. It tastes so sinful that you think it’s bad for you, but it’s actually so good for you. That’s something I love to do, but my blender had broken. So I remember going down to Target, walking down the aisle and looking at all the blenders. I was starting to look at all the prices because normally everything that I bought would be based on how much it cost. If I couldn’t afford it, I wouldn’t get it. So I had to always go for something that was low cost. I was looking at these blenders and suddenly, walking down the aisle, I started crying because I realised that I didn’t have to look at the price. I could buy any one of those blenders that I chose. I knew in that moment - even though I didn’t have hundreds of thousands in the bank – I knew that I was going to be a millionaire and that my money worries were over forever. I had opened that doorway, opened that portal if you like, to allow prosperity to flow to me forever. In that moment, it was very exciting because I knew that my life was taking a huge turn. I couldn’t wait to see what would unfold.
Did you have a mentor to help you through those times? Or did you read books or home study courses? What helped you get through that initial learning curve?
I absolutely love - and I still do to this very day – learning. Obviously I couldn’t afford to pay a mentor. I couldn’t afford to go to live events like seminars and workshops. But I immersed myself in every book I could get hold of, every audio I could listen to. I went on every live tele-seminar I could, listened to every interview. I did everything I could that was either no cost or low cost.
Initially, two people had a huge impact on me. The first, spiritually, was Wayne Dyer. He was a wonderful mentor in really getting me to connect to my spiritual side. But then, there was also Mark Victor Hansen. He was very much someone that encouraged me to think so much bigger than I ever thought possible. He’s a fabulous motivator, a great inspiration. He said that he’s got ADHD – and I looked at him and thought, ‘He’s scattered, he’s all over the place. He doesn’t know what he’s doing half the time. That’s me!’ But I looked at him and thought, ‘Look at the success he’s created? If he can do it, I can do it.’ He really was a huge inspiration to me. So I used to read everything that he brought out. I’d race to the library and order the book if they didn’t already have it. Over time, as my finances got bigger and more abundant, I then started going to his live events and buying home study courses and other things.
These days I’ll buy anything, listen to anything, and attend anything that is based on success and personal development and becoming the best that you can be. I just love it. I think I’m addicted to making myself a better person.
If someone else was coming to you in a similar situation - say $100,000 in debt with two children to support - what advice would you give them?
The very first thing that people need to do is to work on a millionaire mindset. This is my absolute passion and this is what I teach hundreds of thousands of people around the world: to change their thinking when it comes to money. If they are wanting more prosperity, more abundance, more wealth, more riches in their life, the very first thing that has to change is the way they think around money. I don’t mean suddenly just ‘like’ the idea of having more money. I mean: every thought that they have to do with money. If they see someone else with a beautiful house and a fabulous car, instead of feeling jealous, they have to feel grateful that that is actually in their life. Even if it’s not theirs - it’s there, they can see it, they can appreciate it. Every time a bill comes in and they can’t pay it, instead of stressing and worrying about it, instead just look at it and imagine that it’s paid. Write it down on a list and put a big tick against it all, or put a big cross over it all and write ‘paid’ next to it. Do whatever you can within your mind to create the life that you want. That will mean writing out affirmations about how you want things to be; doing visualisations and seeing that success, seeing that prosperity, seeing that abundance.
But really, that first step has to be about changing the way you think, because people either have what I call a ‘prosperity consciousness’ or they have a ‘poverty consciousness’. The consciousness you have is not something you, or most people may even be aware of. It stems from how they were raised when it comes to money - the things they heard from their parents. Things such as: “it takes money to make money”; things such as “the rich get richer and poor get poorer”; things that you hear from the media and from business people, from well-meaning friends and family, even religion. You have all this input when it comes to money. Even now, we hear how hard times are, “the economic recession”. I personally haven’t bought into that and I’ve had the best three months that I’ve had for years. It’s really a matter of where you want to be. Where you are now can be purely based on the fact of how you were raised around money: the things you heard, the things you buy into now. All people really need to do is change that. Instead of looking at how things are, look at how they want it to be - and they can turn that poverty consciousness into a prosperity consciousness.
It’s not just changing their thinking. What happens is it changes who they are on the inside, it changes people on a cellular level. Once someone is changed at a cellular level, once they’re changed from the inside out, then all the circumstances on the outside will change. If their issue is being around money, not having enough, not being able to pay bills and that’s where they constantly put their focus and their attention, that’s what they continue to recreate. That comes from a poverty consciousness. Instead, they need to work on changing that to a prosperity consciousness and focus on what they would like - success they would like to experience; the places they’d like to go to; the things they’d like to buy; the house they’d like to live in; the money they’d like to give to others. If they focus on the prosperity instead of the lack, then they will begin to change from the inside out. Once they change from the inside out, then the people and circumstances and opportunities will begin to flow into their life. This enables them to create in their reality the life that they dream of.
In your own life, you managed to increase your income from $15,000 a year to over $150,000 a year within 12 months. But then you say you lost everything again because you didn’t have the money skills and the right mindset. Is that what you’re talking about?
Yes, absolutely. It’s the same thing we hear over and over again about people who win the Lottery and they become instant millionaires. Then two or three years later, not only have they lost everything, but they’re usually worse off financially. We all stand around scratching our heads going: “Well, that’s stupid. Give me the money, I’ll show them how to handle it. I’ll show them what can be done.” But I was pretty much in the same situation. Whilst I didn’t win the Lottery, I was able to create a lot of money through a new business that I’d started and the money was all pouring in. But you know what? I had not changed who I was on the inside. So, the circumstances on the outside were only temporary. So that money came in, but all these different things began occurring in my life to make it flow out again. Things would break down, things would blow up, teeth would fall out, you name it. As soon the money flowed in, it flowed straight back out again, and that’s exactly what I’m talking about. You really need to change your mindset first, then create the success.
The next part of that is once you’ve worked on your mindset, once you’re beginning to change that and create millionaire mindset, then you need to find a mentor. You need to go out into the world and know what it is that you want to do. Now at this stage you may have no idea. A lot of people say: “Yes I want to be rich, but I don’t know exactly what I want to do to create that prosperity, to create that wealth.” That’s fine, you don’t need to initially. Just find someone who has created prosperity and abundance, someone you resonate with, and someone whose message really speaks to you. In whatever way you can, connect with them - whether it’s through going to the library and getting their books, or buying their audios, or attending one of their seminars. Just connect to their message and listen to them.
Then the third step, (once you’ve created your millionaire mindset, once you’ve found yourself a mentor) is you have to apply what you have learned. Too often in life we can get very stuck on the learning, we just immerse ourselves in finding out what to do. We know everything, we know all about it, but we don’t actually do it. You see this every day of your life when it comes to people being overweight – it’s nothing to do with money, but when people are overweight they usually know that all it takes is exercising more and eating less. We all know it, but is everyone doing it? No. It’s the same with creating success. You can go out there and read all the books you like, you can connect with all the mentors in the world, you can attend every seminar on success. But unless you apply it, nothing is going to change.
Those three things are really key: create a millionaire mindset; find a mentor that you resonate with; and apply what you have learned.
So action is very important. Do you think this is the missing ingredient that people talk about when they say they’ve watched [the motivational film] ‘The Secret’, but they’ve not had any results yet?
Absolutely. The seed for making ‘The Secret’ occurred when Rhonda [Byrne] read the book The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. It’s a book written way back in 1910, so a very, very old book. However in there he says something that is very profound. He says: “By thought, the thing you desire is brought to you. But by action, you receive it.” So you can sit on a mountain top and meditate until the cows come home about your million dollars, but it’s not going to drop into your lap. You need to actually get out there and take action. When you spend that mindset time - that manifesting time, that metaphysical time - imagining the wealth and putting your attention and energy and vibration there, that’s the first part of the equation. But then, you have to take some action. It doesn’t even matter if it’s the wrong action. If it’s a wrong action you’ll know, and then you’ll take a different action that might lead you to another step. Then that step will suddenly take you somewhere else, which will suddenly put you in connection with the right person or the opportunity or the situation that will help you. It will come in to your reality. But you have to take that action. You have to take action for it to actually appear in your life.
You were asked to take part in ‘The Secret’ as one of the experts. Tell me a little about that.
Yes, that was so exciting. It’s a long, convoluted story, but basically ‘The Secret’ was actually already out and I wasn’t in it. You couldn’t buy it here in Australia, believe it or not, but I managed to get my hands on a copy. I fell in love with it and really wanted to be in it - even though I knew it was already made. Previously to that, I’d heard about ‘The Secret’ and I’d gone on the website. I didn’t have a real sense of what it was about because it was just a two-minute trailer. I remember contacting Rhonda through the website saying: “Look, I just know that what you’re doing is going to transform the planet. It’s going to touch billions of people. I don’t know what it is –logically, I have no idea - but I just feel it in my heart. So I would love to send you a gift as a thank you.” I got an e-mail back from Rhonda and she basically said: “Yes, it would be lovely. I’ve heard of you and your work.” So I sent her my book, and she read it and loved it.
It just so happened that I was going to be in America at exactly the same place that she was, about two or three weeks later. We met up and they asked if they could film me. So they spent a whole day filming me. The plan at that stage was to bring out a series of Secrets. ‘The Secret’ at the moment is just one DVD with a lot of different components like: the secret to life, the secret to money, the secret to relationships, the secret to health. So they were planning to bring out a series. But I think they’ve been so busy bringing out the initial film in many, many various languages that they haven’t really got around to releasing anything else at this stage.
Would you say that was the high point of your career? Or would you say that of your book How to be Wildly Wealthy Fast? It jumped past bestsellers such as Da Vinci Code and Rich Man, Poor Dad - that must have been pretty amazing?
At the time it was funny because it was moving up the charts on Amazon and I just couldn’t go to sleep. So I was staying up all night watching it move up, starting at around 24,000 and then moving up to 16,000 and then to 7,000 and then up into the hundreds and then up to the tens. Then it got up to number five, which is below one of Harry Potter’s books. That was a wonderful, wonderful time. It was so exciting because that was early on in my career as a prosperity mentor, so that was really, really exciting. But then being selected to be filmed for ‘The Secret’ was a real pat on the back. Everyone that was selected for ‘The Secret’ was very, very well known - I’d heard of pretty much all of them. To be chosen and be recognized as one of their peers was really wonderful.
But then I think, just recently I was selected as Mentor of the Year in an international awards ceremony over in New York. That was basically women from all around the world. So to be selected as Mentor of the Year, when it was only five or six years ago that I was struggling and looking to other people to be my mentors! Here I am now transforming hundreds of thousands of lives around the world! Being awarded is fabulous. It’s a beautiful, big trophy that looks like a logi sitting on my kitchen bench at home. That was really, really wonderful.
What would you attribute your success to? Some people might say: “she just struck lucky!” Would you say it’s because you were prepared when luck fell in your lap or because you had a very deliberate strategy that you followed?
Gosh, that makes me laugh, “very deliberate strategy”. You know what has allowed me to create my success? The fact that I usually have no idea what I’m doing and I just get an idea and I run with it. I don’t think about it and I don’t plan it, I just do it. If it works it works, if it doesn’t it doesn’t. If something doesn’t work, I don’t go, “oh my gosh” and spend hours and days moping about how it didn’t work and what a disaster and what a waste of time. I just go on to the next great idea and implement, see what happens. I think that has really allowed me to create success. I’m very flexible. I’m very open to change. I guess I have to be because the Internet is the main part of my business. It is so fluid and constantly changing and evolving. But you can’t get stuck in a rut. I guess for me that has been a huge part, the way I am just able to run with whatever idea I happen to have at the time.
But I think the second part to my success is I’m so passionate about what I do. I’ve been in that place of being $100,000 in debt and on welfare and it was soul destroying. I wasn’t able to make simple day-to-day choices about what I wanted to do - everything was based on “did I have enough money” and the answer was always “no”. I couldn’t go to a yoga class because I didn’t have enough money. I couldn’t buy my children a bag of lollies or a packet of crisps at the store, I didn’t have enough money. I couldn’t let them buy from the tuck-shop at school, I didn’t have enough money. I couldn’t get a video, couldn’t get a DVD, I didn’t have enough money. All those little day-to-day choices were stripped from me and I so don’t want anyone else to ever have to experience that.
I have gone from being in that real place of struggle to being a millionaire. I didn’t have any support or connections, I didn’t even finish high school. I don’t have any great skills, I didn’t have any massive amounts of knowledge. I just had a passion for helping other people to create their own millionaire mindset and the life of their dreams. I think because of that passion, that has really helped my business become successful because people get swept up in that passion. They can see that I’m so passionate about what I do, and that I really want to be an agent of change for them. They just want to be a part of it. They know that if they come on board and get swept up in that passion, and do as I invite them to do, then change will happen for them, too.
The big question is: can anyone achieve what you’ve achieved no matter what their circumstances?
Totally. I totally believe that. The reason I say that is because I wasn’t born into this world with money. Even when I discovered the law of attraction, it didn’t suddenly happen overnight. There were a lot of ups and downs. I saw an increase in prosperity and then it disappeared. Then I saw a bit more of an increase and then that disappeared. Then I saw some more and it disappeared. It would come and go - it was a bit like a roller coaster ride. So because I went through that roller coaster ride, the dips got less and the highs got a bit higher. Then the dips got less and the highs got higher. Until I got to this place where “yes, I still have my up and downs,” but my life flows so much smoother and the prosperity is always there.
I teach people that. Yes, you might go through the ups and downs still and it might seem like everything is falling apart. But it’s like going through a transformation just like a butterfly. It starts as a caterpillar and then becomes this butterfly, it’s the same sort of thing. Don’t think that just because you’ve discovered ‘The Secret’ or just because you understand the law of attraction that suddenly everything is going to fall into place. It doesn’t always do that. I know that for a lot of people, it doesn’t at all. They still have to go through some challenges, some hiccups, some setbacks. But they continue to create their millionaire mindset, continue to focus on what they do want, continue to see their success and abundance. When they continue to do that, then the bottom line is we’re working with universal law. So, the bottom line is, it has to happen. If you continue to focus on what it is that you do want, the universe has to deliver. There can be no other way. It’s only when you focus on what you want and how it hasn’t arrived yet, it’s not there and you don’t think it’s going to work, the universe can’t deliver. But if you continue to focus on what you do want and create that millionaire mindset, then it has to happen.
What motivates you? Is it your children, is it helping other people, is it the money?
Initially, it was all about the money. I was so fed up with the situation I was in, having no choices, that I just wanted the money. I don’t mean ‘having lots of money and spending whenever I want’, I’m very much into lifestyle. I live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia, and I love just being able to go down to the beach when I want or to have lunch with a friend or to go to a movie. It’s not like I want to buy masses of jewellery, a purse, clothes and things - not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s just not who I am. For me, it was just knowing that the money would create not only financial freedom, but that it would create freedom in all other areas of my life.
So initially it was the money that motivated me. Then, it became my children. I so wanted my children to see that they can go out into the world and do whatever their heart desires. No matter what life throws at them, they have a choice and they can create their life the way they want it to be. They’ve very much experienced that, because they’ve gone from that place of never being allowed to have an ice cream when we’re down the street to me taking them all over the world. We’ve gone to Africa and watched the wildebeest migrate across the Serengeti Plains. I’ve taken them to Hawaii and we’ve flown by helicopter over where they filmed Jurassic Park. I took my daughter to New York City and – because she loved the TV show Sex and the City – we went on a tour where they took us to Carrie Bradshaw’s house and we drank Cosmopolitans at Aidan’s bar. We’ve been to Mount Kilimanjaro and climbed to the very top. We’ve gone to Machu Picchu and trekked the Inca trail in Peru. The things that we’ve done totally transformed their day-to-day experience of life. That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to show them they could create whatever they wanted and I was a perfect example.
Now, it’s about all of these things because I still love that financial freedom and I never want to lose that. So I’m always going to be motivated by continuing to make money. I always want to motivate and show my children that anything is a possible. But more than that now, it’s also about helping everyone else achieve exactly the same thing because I believe if I can do it, absolutely anyone can. I know everyone is special in their own way, but I honestly don’t think there’s anything that special about me. I’m just like everyone else. But I totally believe that when you focus on what your heart desires and you persist, then the universe has to bring it to you.
Describe a typical day for you. How do you start your morning - do you start with visualisations, do you start by writing a list? How do you begin your day?
I love giving people the weight loss analogy because everyone can relate to that. When you’re overweight and you initially want to lose weight, you have to be diligent about everything. So you have to get out the calorie counter and get out the scales. Every piece of food that you eat, you’ve got to measure it out and check the calories. Then you’ve got to exercise. You’ve got to keep track of what you’re eating and keep track of how you’re exercising. You’ve got to note everything, be really on top of it. That’s exactly the same when you want to create prosperity and abundance.
When I first started, I would put aside an hour in the morning and it was my ‘magical manifesting marathon’. In that time, I would do affirmations. I would write out my affirmation 16 or 17 times and I would see visualisations in my mind. I would read out my desired statements and I would do all the work. Then what happens over time is that you begin to be someone who’s prosperous. It’s the same as someone overweight who over time begins to be a healthy person with perfect weight. They no longer have to count every calorie, weigh everything they eat, or push themselves to the limit with exercise. They just make better choices every moment of every day and that keeps them at that great weight. I think that’s where I am now when it comes to prosperity and abundance.
Whilst I’m going off to sleep, I make sure that I see what it is I’m wanting to create. I feel it in my heart. But I don’t put aside big chunks of time to do the work - like making sure that I am visualising and doing my affirmations for so many minutes a day. It’s more about doing things that make me feel good, because I know that if I feel good then I think good thoughts. When I think good thoughts, I plant the seeds of good things to happen in my life. But when I do things that don’t make me feel good - like you stay up late, or if you’re a drinker or a smoker, or if like me you eat too much chocolate - if I do things that I know aren’t good for my body, then it makes me feel yucky. When I feel yucky, I have yucky thoughts, then I create yucky circumstances in my life, and that’s how it works.
For me, I spend as much time as I can trying to do things that make me feel good then I know naturally I’m going to attract good things into my world. And because I have a millionaire mindset, I don’t have to think about prosperity. I just naturally think prosperous thoughts. I naturally focus on being able to create and attract and have all those wonderful things in my world. So I don’t have to put aside those chunks of time. But one thing that’s really important to be able to create the life of your dreams: you need to spend a lot of time in gratitude. That means you need to focus on those things in your life that you are grateful for now.
For instance, this morning I got up at about quarter past five and I went down to the beach because I only live about six minutes from my favourite beach. As I was running on the beach, I was just so grateful for living in that part of the world and the beautiful weather, to be able to watch the waves come in. Was I focusing on abundance and prosperity and wealth? No, but I was focusing on things that made me feel wonderful. What that does, that puts an energy or a vibration or an order out into the universe to attract more things that make me feel amazing and wonderful and fabulous. So, if people can spend more time being in that place of gratitude, then they’ll notice that naturally over time they will begin to attract more things into their world that make them feel even more grateful.
Then when they’re even more grateful and they’re noticing all those great things, then they’re even more in that vibration and energy. Then they place more orders for the same things, and then they attract even more. So, it’s this wonderful cycle. Instead of cycling down it’s cycling up, attracting these wonderful things in your world simply by being grateful. Being grateful for what you already have can create so much more in your world.
You see gratitude in children, and that wonder and awe when they’re very small. Then it slowly disappears as people get older. Why do you think that happens?
Unfortunately when it comes to society, all the institutions that are there supposedly to help us seem to knock the daylights out of us. Places like school, for instance, if someone was sitting in the classroom and they’re daydreaming about something amazing and wonderful and great, they would get wrapped over the knuckles and asked to concentrate. If they were told to write out an essay about something that they wanted to have in their world, if it was too big and too grand, they’d be told, “Don’t be stupid, you couldn’t do that. You couldn’t have that.” I’m not saying anything against teachers, because my sister is a teacher. But it’s very much the actual institution itself. School, and the media knock the expectations out of people. They try to bring everyone back to reality.
Sometimes even friends and family do the same thing - not because they’re wanting to hold you back or they don’t want you to experience success - but they think that if you don’t reach this wonderful life that you want to create, you’re going to be so disappointed. So rather than let you get into that space, they’ll pull you back and tell you all the reasons why it won’t work now, before you even try, so that you won’t get disappointed. Now in reality, how stupid is that? But that’s pretty much the way we work, that’s the way we’re raised. That’s the way society teaches us. But if we could just let all that go and instead begin to be that child again: begin to wake up each morning with the anticipation for what’s going to happen, what we’re going to attract into our world today, what amazing things are going to unfold. If we can start each day like that, we can bring amazing things into our world each day. We need to get back to that child-like excitement and anticipation for our life, rather than the: “Ho-hum, here I go. Off to work again, how dull.” That’s what sort of really extinguishes the spark of manifesting in most people.
Tell about some of your clients - what makes people come to see you in the first place? What makes them go outside of their comfort zone? Is it because they’ve had a crisis in their lives or something ‘big’ happens?
I think it’s very much a cross-section. A lot of people are drawn to my message simply because they have a yearning in their soul for something more. They know that the life that they’re living is not necessarily the one that makes their heart sing. They know that they should be doing something or experiencing something or going somewhere. Their life should not be the way it is at the moment. When they hear me speak, rather than just talk about facts and figures and ‘let’s make money’, they hear that the way I create prosperity is more about connecting to the spiritual self. It’s more about sending orders out to the universe than, “ok, let’s work so many hours a week.” I think that really resonates with a lot of women. They love the idea that they don’t need to be some sort of brain surgeon to go out there and create more success and prosperity in their world.
They just need to ‘get’ and understand at a really deep level what universal law and the law of attraction is all about. They need some simple strategies to use in their day-to-day life, and then to combine that with practical strategies, and so that the prosperity will begin to flow. It may not be in a tidal wave the first week. But it will begin to come in drops, it will begin to turn into a brook, it will turn into a river. It will get bigger and bigger. I think that’s why people are drawn to me because it is that message of joining the practical with the metaphysical. The two together are what creates their success. People know they want something more, though they don’t necessarily know what that is. So they’re drawn to my message because it just resonates with them.
If I had to go out and take a practical first step today, what would you suggest that I do as the most effective thing in the next 24 hours?
I’d give you a ‘mindset step’ and a ‘practical step’. So the mindset step would be: spend 15 minutes today and imagine that you just won the Lottery. Just for 15 minutes, write down everything you’d do: the places you’d go, the things you’d experience, all the toys that you’d buy, whatever it is that makes your heart sing, the people that you’d help. Write down whatever it is that sets you on fire. Don’t write it down from the space of “Oh my gosh, how much is that? Am I going to be able to afford it?” No, you’ve just won the Lottery and for all you know the prize was $30 million. Don’t write it down from a logical level, write it from a place of feeling.
Instead of just writing “I’m going to Egypt,” feel what it would be like to actually be in Egypt. Have that hot sun shining down on your skin, feel that hot breeze blowing through your hair. See yourself going up to the great pyramids, touch them and feel that roughness, smell the smells that you’d smell when you’re in Egypt. Feel your foot taking that first step up those huge pyramids and flood your body with the joy and excitement. Look at the people that are with you - maybe you’ve taken your family or your lover or your best friend or your children - look at their faces and feel how proud you are that you’ve been able to create this and have them be a part of that experience. When you write it all out, get into the feeling place because your feelings are what create. It’s not the writing it down, it’s not saying the affirmation, it’s not reading out the desire statement, it’s the feelings. The feelings are what send that order out to the universe and allow the universe to bring it back to you. So write down this ideal, amazing, fabulous life that you’re creating now that you’ve won these multi-million dollars and get into the feeling place of that. That’s the first thing that you could do.
Then the practical step I would say is start saving your coins. What I mean by that is: I never spend a coin. No matter how expensive or inexpensive something is - even if it’s 20 cents - I always pay with paper money. I take all my coins and I put them in a little jar, then when that jar’s full I put it in the bank. You might say: “Why do you bother doing that now?” It’s a habit that I got into when I had no money whatsoever. What I found out was I had a finite amount of money coming in each week, and when I made the decision that I wasn’t going to spend my coins, I would put them in the bank instead. What this did was it stopped me from making choices about spending, because I obviously had less money because I was amassing these small coins. Not that I used to overspend, because I didn’t have money to overspend, but you’d be surprised at what happens. I didn’t buy that chocolate bar for myself because I didn’t want to break a note, I wanted to put these coins aside.
Then what happened is that I was beside myself with joy the very first time that I put those coins in the bank. I think it added up to about $198 - and that was the first time that I actually had money in the bank in an account that I was not going to touch. My plan was to keep putting money in there and then take money and do something with it - whether it was to pay money off my credit card or eventually put that money into something that would multiply. The plan was just to have money. From a metaphysical perspective, that did amazing things for me. Believe it or not with $198, I suddenly felt rich. I actually had money saved up, and for me that was a huge thing.
For people that may be in a position now where they are struggling, try not to spend any coins. Put them in a jar. When the jar is full, take them to the bank. As that money accumulates, make a plan for that money. That may be as simple as: I’m going to take that money and I’m going to do nothing but put that down on my credit card debt, I’m going to pay it off that way. You’d be amazed at the difference that it could make. It makes a difference not just on a practical level but on a metaphysical level as well.
So, those are the two tips that I’d be giving people.
Can you tell me about some of the people that you’ve helped over the years, some of the success stories of lives that have been transformed?
It’s been incredible. I just love getting e-mails and letters from people. I remember one lady e-mailed me to say that she had been in a car accident about a year earlier. She’d fractured her spine in three places, she was in the hospital for months, and she was really depressed. She tried to commit suicide a number of times because she was really struggling financially and in every other area. Her life was totally falling apart.
She came across a book that I was in. From that book and reading a bit about me, she jumped on my website www.wildlywealthywomen.com and saw that I offer a lot of free things: free tele-seminars, free e-books and audios, etc. So she took a lot of the free things I had and then her life started to change. The next thing you know, she became a published author with me in one of my compilation books. Then she went out there and started writing articles. Now, it’s about 18 months later, she has a very successful business and writes articles for a number of online article banks. She’s published two or three books of her own. She has a website where she helps other women to create their own prosperity, abundance, and success. She has totally transformed her world.
Now, this is someone who was suicidal. This is why I say to people: “Look, we’re talking universal law here. If you apply what it is that I teach, if you create your own millionaire mindset, then anything is possible. You have no excuse because it is universal law.” So if someone who is suicidal can transform their life in less than 18 months, then all it really takes is an idea. It takes the right mentor and it takes applying what you learn. Anything is possible.
Do you think it’s important to have a team around you to help you with the changes - even if it’s just, for example, a web designer or a copywriter?
Absolutely. At the start, I know for me personally, I did it all. I couldn’t afford to hire anyone else; I couldn’t afford to get someone to help me. Now, obviously I have quite a few people on my team, but I love virtual assistants. I have about six or seven virtual assistants – only one of them lives here in Australia. The rest of them live in Canada and America. I’ve never met them; I probably never will meet them. It’s lovely being able to say to someone, “Can you change this in my website” or “I need this form made” or “Can you contact that person?” These are usually moms that work from their own homes. They work on an hourly rate, so you only pay them for what they do. They’re not on full-time. You don’t have to pay them every week; you don’t have to pay them sick pay or holiday pay. You give them a task, they do it and they just bill you for the hours that they work. That’s something that every person will need to look at, if they’re wanting to create huge success.
But this is a real key - before you get to the place of hiring anybody, start to write down what you do every day. If you do a particular task, detail it, write a flow chart, have a checklist. You might think, ‘Why do I need that? I’m the only one that’s doing it!’ Let me tell you from experience: I used to do everything, and I mean everything. I did the marketing, I did the website, I set the tele-seminars up, I recorded things. I did everything myself. I got to the point where I was so busy doing all the work, that the idea of actually telling somebody how to do the work on top of doing the work was overwhelming. It took me years to hire somebody to do something simply because training them to do it seemed so daunting. But now, every time someone does something in my business, I tell them: “You do a flowchart, do a checklist.” This is so that whenever anyone else needs to do it, no one needs to be told anything, We just give them a piece of paper and they follow the step-by-step instructions.
You definitely need a team of people that are going to assist you if you plan on creating huge success, and I just don’t mean a business team. I have someone that comes in who cleans my house; I have someone that mows my lawn; I have someone that does my pool; I have someone that landscapes my garden. I’m looking at getting someone to come and prepare healthy meals for me. In fact this week, I’ve just found an organic gourmet food service. They prepare meals and deliver them to your house. It’s lovely being able to do that now, because financially I’m in a position to do it.
There’s certain things you can do that will make all the difference. For instance, when I was struggling financially, one of the things that made me feel rich beyond my wildest dreams was getting my house cleaned. So once every two weeks, I would get someone in for an hour and a half and it cost me around $25. So that would work out to around $12.50 a week, to get someone to clean my house. I loved it. When they left, I felt rich. I felt so sparkling clean, so fresh and new, and it made a huge difference. Even if you’re not financially in a position to get support all the time, just try and do something somewhere in your life. Again, from a practical standpoint, it will really help. But from a metaphysical standpoint, it will help you to connect with that person who is financially free with all the support they need.
Your plans for the future… what are your plans for the next five to 10 years?
Ten years is way too far out, I’m a plan-next-week type of person. I’ve just recently launched InspiredSpiritCoaching.com. That’s a programme where I train people to be coaches. I train them to use all of the principles in How to Be Wildly Wealthy Fast so they can create their own business and transform people’s lives. I figured I can’t do it all on my own, so I put together a coaching academy that trains people so that they can have a lot of fun transforming people’s lives but at the same time create a wonderful income for themselves.
What sort of age range would you say your clients are?
The youngest I can recall was 17 - at one of my seminars. That’s not to say that I don’t have people younger than that because I know a lot of moms say: “My daughter or my son uses the principles in your book and they’re getting so much value from them. They got high marks at school and they’ve got the job that they want.” So I know there are younger kids too. When it comes to the target range that utilises all my products, it’s very much women in the 30-55 age group. They’re the ones that really get the most out of it. Women whose their souls are yearning for more and they just want to create an amazing, wonderful life.
More information at: http://www.wildlywealthywomen.com
Chapter Two
Jennifer Hough
Jennifer Hough is President and founder of The Vital You, the largest holistic nutrition clinic in Canada. She is co-creator of Soul Awakening Adventures – with retreats to Peru, Sedona, Bali, Bimini Bahamas and Cost Rica. She transformed her own life from years of financial struggle and chronic migraines to one of abundance and limitless vitality. When she first set up her business, she had no desk and no office, so would hold consultations sitting cross-legged on her living room floor. Jennifer is also a bestselling author, speaker and radio show host.