How I Went From Broke to 6 Figures in One Year
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This is embarrassing to admit, but I used to be broke.
And I didn’t even really realize I was broke.
I was surrounded by artists, my apartment was falling apart and run by a slumlord who harassed me in the hallways, nothing was repaired, and crackheads were doing drugs and defacating on my front steps.
Weirdly, this didn’t phase me much – it wasn’t all that dissimilar to the lives of a lot of people I knew – artists, creative types, forever students, spiritual folks, leftists, activists, queers – people who were generally happy with less, and who either didn’t strive for more, or who didn’t realize that anything outside of broke artist/activist, ramshackle slum vibe living was even possible.
Stress was the baseline, as were crooked floors, broken sinks and flickering lightbulbs. They were me, I was them – and among many of my ragtag community of queer activisty leftist types, it was often considered morally upright to be poor.
After all, if you had any money at all, you must have come by it unethically – exploited someone, lied, or done some evil capitalist crime. What scum! What trash, those monied people! This was a common refrain among the folks around me in my twenties.
So, I grew to associate money with badness, in order to be accepted by this new community of friendly if not intense activists. It made me good and morally righteous to be broke, or so my community taught me. I was someone without family ties – for good reason – and if these folks were going to accept me as family, I’d do whatever, believe whatever, to belong and win their approval. This was all so subconscious and below the surface I didn’t even realize I was doing it.
But eventually, after a series of serendipitous life events combined with just getting older and going through more therapy… I challenged my beliefs, and realized that money has absolutely nothing to do with morality, with kindness, with being a good person.
I’d met some broke activisty folks who were so sweet and generous, and others who would backstab and be ridiculously cruel. I’d also met people who were successful with money who were rude, and others who were gregarious and fun and positive to be around. My old limiting belief – equating morality with brokeness – started to crumble, and I realized that money just gives people the opportunity to be more of who they really are.
More money means more resources for a kind person to do good. I realized I couldn’t do much good for myself or others if I stayed broke forever, especially since I didn’t have any family support.
I slowly realized that money could be a tool for me to heal, to take care of myself, to challenge myself to recognize my own value.
This was, honestly, a hard journey. In my path to become more successful and leave being perpetually broke behind, I lost a lot of friends – I lost my activisty, leftist friends who convinced themselves that my desire to be compensated for my skills made me evil.
And you know what, despite those losses, I really don’t regret challenging my own belief systems. I didn’t realize the extent to which those limiting beliefs around money – and how if you have it, it’s impossible to be a good person – were keeping me in a space of undervaluing myself and also underearning. I wanted to be a good person, and if good people were all broke, well, then I’d be broke forever.
What a twisted mindset. And yet, it had its ugly claws on me for more years than I’d like to admit.
All of us have these limiting beliefs around business and money – maybe they’re around morality, like mine were; maybe they’re around something else, like the idea that ‘people like you’ can’t ever be high earners.
Maybe your own limiting beliefs tell you that all artists are broke, and if you wanna make good money it’s impossible unless you’re a doctor. If you look closely, you’ll see that there’s plenty of evidence to prove your limiting beliefs wrong, whatever they are – for instance, I’ve met broke doctors and I’ve met artists who were millionaires.
Limiting beliefs limit us unnecessarily, and often enable us to not try, or to sell ourselves short. But there’s another option.
Beliefs and mindset are often the missing piece when folks talk about entrepreneurship, levelling up, and growing.
Once I realized I had that limiting belief around money and earning… within one year, I tripled my revenue, and crossed the 6 figure mark in my business. It’s been nothing short of absolutely life changing, life giving.
Business strategy has been huge – but changing my mindset, unearthing and shifting the limiting beliefs I had about people with money – was such a big catalyst for me.
In my Magic of Business course, I’ll teach more about mindset, limiting beliefs, and everything else that is stopping you from making more money.
Let me show you my methodologies and processes from how I went from broke… to not… in what felt like overnight.
Now enrolling. If I were you, I wouldn’t wait.