Why Money Is NOT Your Problem

Hey LinkedIn, Dacia Coffey here and welcome to Wednesday!

This is the written edition of my weekly series called Corporate Caffeine.?Today's focus is on?Why Money Is NOT Your Problem

FYI - I host this series live on?Facebook ?&?LinkedIn , post these episodes to?YouTube , and have a bonus?podcast covering a lot of this content and more.?

?So, let's jump right in!?

Money Is NOT Your Problem

(Click here to watch the full video)

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Hey, everyone! It is Wednesday, which means it's time for some Corporate Caffeine. If you have never read or watched me before, I do not think that work is a four-letter word.

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I actually think that you cannot fulfill your potential, you cannot fulfill your joy, and you cannot fulfill your authentic calling if you're not clear on what it is.

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You do have one.

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You can't do any of that unless you allow yourself to integrate work into your life and what you are capable of delivering to the world.

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We spend so much time at work, right? We often don't choose the people that we engage with, so it means there is an incredible opportunity for a dramatic impact.

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My topic today is that I don't think money is your problem in your business.?

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Hopefully, this will resonate with you. And, let me add, just so you know, my content is always applicable to me, too!?I never bring you stuff where I'm saying, "This is what you should do. This is who you should be."

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This is really from experiences in my own life and from those who I love and who have helped me, pushed me, and challenged me along the way. That's what I want to be for you.?When I say money is not your problem, what in heck's name am I talking about?

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Let me start here: What do you actually want? There are a million different ways to answer this question. I personally think it's the most difficult question to possibly answer.

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An Empty Nest, and What Comes Next??

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I'll give you an example: My husband Kyle and I will be empty nesters as of the end of this next summer.

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We've got four boys. They are all flying the coop, so we'll be on our own. We've spent a lot of years daydreaming and planning and thinking about what comes next...and we still don't know.

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Let me bring this back to you: Do you want a dream job? Do you want to be the boss? Are you seeking your calling? Do you want to be famous or influential? Those are not necessarily the same thing.

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Are you at a place where you're thinking about your legacy? Do you want to be known? Do you want to have an impact that goes well beyond your years on this planet? Do you want freedom? Adventure? To sleep?

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I want you to actually think to yourself: What do I want?

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I want you to name it.

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From there, I want to know: What's standing in your way? And that's really, really important because most of us would say, "oh well, you know, I don't have enough money." But is that it? Is that a real thing?

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What If I Gave You a Million Dollars To Go Build Something or Do Something?

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Here's the deal: Let's say you get the million dollars, but there are some rules around it. First, you have to spend it in a life-changing way. Like, it changes your life, not temporarily but permanently.

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I'm sure you guys are thinking, "That sounds like total BS. Of course, I could spend it that way!" But that's not really true. Spending money is not as easy as just handing it across the counter.

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Imagine you have the clarity of what you want to do now. You have the money to go do it.

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Let's pretend that you want to go own a business or start a business that you've been dreaming about.

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What's the first thing you have to do??

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Well, you actually need a business name. Do you know why you need a business name (which, by the way, does not cost any money to come up with)?

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You need a business name because you actually have to file documents with the government, which doesn't cost very much money. But the name is important...it indicates something that will eventually deliver value to the economy.?

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So, you go to the bank and give them your name and tax ID. I did this a long, long time ago for the first time. Do you know what the bank said?

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They said, "Super, we'll open up an account for you and let you deposit some money so you can get your business going, but we need to see something that tells us this business is actually real." I even had to create collateral to prove this business was real.

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There were so many steps before the point where I even had to spend, before the point where I had to build a website or tell the world who I was or advertise or spend in order to deliver our services.

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There are so many baby steps leading there. That's the thing: The same actually goes for adventure. It goes for chasing your calling. It goes for helping others. It goes for stepping out into the world.

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Any time you're doing something like this, you have to plan.

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You have to create momentum and traction on your own before you can ever spend the money.

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There's no money involved in these steps, but there is a kind of course. There is a time commitment and a research commitment. Money is not your problem. Just take those baby steps forward.

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This can be hard, and I've struggled with this myself. The truth is that?you?are the problem. If you are pointing out that finger and blaming anybody else, you are giving away your power. You're giving away your ability to even daydream about possibilities.

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And guess what? If you cannot give yourself the space in your mind to think about what you want and to imagine it, then you cannot create the words and the decisions that actualize it into a possibility.

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You can't share those words with other people, and those words will never become actions.

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I actually have three things that I want to share with you about how to get out of your own way.

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Get Out of the Crab Bucket

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Crabs are awful little things. I don't know if you have ever gone crabbing, but if you get crabs and you put them in a bucket, they will try to get on top of one another to escape. But here's what happens:

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If one of them gets up to the edge and starts to escape, the other crabs will actually pull it down. They will start to tear and shred that crab apart for the audacity that it would try to escape without the others.

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Don't we do that to each other sometimes? Somebody's going to go for it... somebody's going to do something, and in our mind — maybe not in our highest and best and kindest place — doesn't people's success make us feel less?

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Doesn't people's courage make us feel scared? Doesn't people's prosperity make us feel like we are lacking???

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Yeah, it does, sometimes.

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We have a tendency to want to stay comfortable, and we want to pull people back down because we're in it together.

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Maybe that's not the proper way to look at it. If you are being pulled back into the crab bucket, be aware. The crab bucket is sometimes your own mind and your own fears. The crab bucket is often the people that you're with now.

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A quick side note: There is research that states that you are the sum of the five people that you hang out with the most. That's not your five best friends — that's five people you spend the most time with.?

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Think about that for a second. You are the average weight of the five people you are around the most.

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You are the average habit: how much you drink, how much you spend, where you go, what you talk about...it all comes down to those five people.

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We put ourselves in places where we mirror one another. Sometimes, we are mirroring and escalating. Sometimes, we are mirroring, staying stagnant, or even going backward. Are you in a crab bucket?

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Are you in a place that is actually pulling you backward, that is actually sucking momentum away from you?

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Get out of the crab bucket.?

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Do the Work, Do the Work

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There is only one superpower that I would never want.?I would never want to be invisible.

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Being invisible is awful. This is a terrible superpower...to wrap yourself in this cloak and disappear does no one any good. It doesn't serve people.

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It doesn't serve you. It doesn't unleash your ability, it doesn't unleash your joy, and you have got to get past this.

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So, do the work.

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What do I mean by "do the work?"

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It actually goes back to the crab bucket. Look in the mirror. Take accountability. Make decisions. Daydream. Learn. Ask. Get a mentor. Read. Put yourself out there.?

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There's so much education and knowledge and support out there. Have you even looked for it? Do the work. You deserve it.

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Take some accountability and create a plan. Find places where you can invest in yourself, where you are already the boss.

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Hopefully, for those of you who have a super boss, you know, then they'll help you organize around possibilities and open yourself, but you have to do the work.

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You know there are so many sayings about luck favoring the bold, and they're all true.

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Do the work.

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Stop playing it safe. Stop being invisible because you are not. Look in the mirror, see yourself, and make the change.?

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Be Humble

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Third, I want you to be humble.

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This one might sound a little bit strange because if I'm challenging you to go for it, you might be thinking, "How does humility help me go for it?" I actually believe that humility is about your ability to take action.

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Think about it: You have to be humble to ask for help. You have to be humble to learn to think that there's something out there that can better you.

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You have to be humble enough to receive what you need to move forward.

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I also think that humility is related to confidence.

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Confident people know their value, and they see other people's value. They know that they have spaces for opportunity and spaces where they need to receive things.

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They have needs or desires or unmet things, but they can see that in other people. Confident people are rooted in something bigger and more important than themselves, so they don't have to be showy.

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You do have to be willing to be a beginner.

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You have to be okay if you make a mistake, and you have to be okay with bouncing back. You have to be okay with finding information that you don't yet have in your head or your heart or maybe even in your life.

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You have to be okay with saying you're sorry, and you have to be good. It takes humility to be strong in a sustainable long-term way, one in which you are valued and in which you bring value.?

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You Can Do Something Today

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There is something that you can do today that takes you a baby step closer to your dreams.

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I don't know what that is. It might be watching something inspirational, doing a little bit of research, or talking to somebody who is not inside of the crab bucket.

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There is always something you can do.

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Guess what? If you string together 365 baby steps, can you imagine where you might be? What happens if you do that the following year? Or the year after that??

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I can tell you from stringing together nine years that I'm in a place where I've got more reach and more opportunities. I have more people helping me, more ideas in my head, and more prosperity than I had nine years ago.

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What if you just take a baby step? Don't diminish what you are capable of.?

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Your Spiritual Fingerprints

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I believe there's something called spiritual fingerprints. No one has your exact experiences, personality, characteristics, family background, strengths, skill set, or all of the things that you are. No one has that exact combination.

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You are not replaceable. You are important, and that means the combination of all those things that makes you.?

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You are, by definition, unique and amazing because you can't be duplicated. There's only one of you. So, get out of your own crab bucket.

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Care more.

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Care more about others, more about yourself. Care about yourself enough to go bigger. Do not shield yourself with invisibility. It's not comfortable, it's not safe, but it's still right.?

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What if you just choose to be your highest and best self in every single one of those things?

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What if it would change your joy? I can guarantee that if you choose to be kind in your words, and if you choose to see and listen and be present with people, you will benefit wildly and immediately.

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I hope this helped you get out of your crab bucket, and I would love to hear the things you have done in your life and the things that the people you love have done in their lives. I think that's the key:

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You've got to remember that everyone is simply doing the best that they can.

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You can string together something absolutely amazing no matter where you are right now. Keep in mind that I'm not saying where you are right now is easy.

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I'm not saying that there are no difficulties, and I'm not saying that you're not hurting. What I am saying is it can change.

Thanks so much for reading, and I will see you guys next Wednesday.

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