Back in 2004 when I attended Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I had no clarity or vision for myself as a business owner, or even simply being self-employed. I had only been in the workforce for about six years, but my then 24-year old self was already feeling my soul being sucked out of me. I had big ideas and nowhere to plant them. I was bored and broken to tears most days, having been forced to let go of my photography career in pursuit of the middle class aspiration of getting a “good job”, one that I would loyally put 30 years into and be rewarded with health insurance, paid time off, and a pension when I retired.
I didn’t need to like the work I was doing, the people I worked with, or my employers. I was simply there to fulfill the job requirements and collect a check. That paycheck, along with job security, was supposed to be enough motivation to keep up and keep going. But it wasn’t. It doesn’t matter how much or how little I’ve made, I was not thriving in this model. I’ve had all kinds of work experiences from office administration to customer service to food and farming. While I’m grateful for those experiences, they never nourished me to the level that being in control of my time and choosing which projects I wanted to work on did.
I’ve been working towards sustainable self-employment for over fifteen years, toggling back and forth between cash jobs and promoting my own offers. While I enjoy an enviable level of time freedom, consistent and abundant cash flow continues to elude me. I’ve read countless books about mindset and money, taken courses, and masterminded with friends and colleagues who share my aspirations.
But I didn’t know that I needed to constantly surround myself with women who looked like me that were at the level I was trying to get to. I didn’t know that delegating work I wasn’t particularly good at or interested in would free up my time and mental space to focus on the work that really mattered to me. I thought I had to wait until I could afford it, and I wasted so much time and energy in the process.
I also didn’t know how to charge enough to pay myself a living wage, because all I was hearing was that I needed to charge at a level where the most people could afford to pay me instead of working with a small, dedicated few at a higher level. Even when I would tell prospects that it costs me the same to host a free workshop as it does to host a paid one, I was still undercharging. Even when I was showing up impatient and angry with clients for wasting my time with bs, not doing any of the work to get the results they claimed they wanted, I was still undercharging.
When one of my best sisterfriends introduced me to Rachel Rodgers years ago, I had no idea that a million dollar business was even possible for me. I couldn’t imagine telling someone that I charge five and ten thousand dollars to work with me. My nervous system is going into overdrive now just thinking about it. It’s not about how I perceive my worth or value. I’m really good at what I do and I get my clients results. It’s the idea that I could show up as myself and have that kind of money coming to me every month in less hours a week that I would have given any “good job” that’s out there, without the microaggressions, without being overworked, undervalued, underappreciated, and underpaid, without having to dim my light or play small, that is mindblowing to me.
I’m still not at the level where I am charging this amount of money, but I’m recalibrating and reimagining what’s possible for my life. What I love about Rachel Rodgers and her manifesto that We Should All Be Millionaires is that it’s not about the money. You don’t need to have a million dollars in the bank to have a rich life. Actually, you shouldn’t have that amount of money in the bank just sitting there because money is energy. It should always be working and growing. We Should All Be Millionaires is about cultivating a life of abundance that you can pay forward (no pun intended) by creating opportunities for yourself and others. It’s about recognizing and playing to your strengths. It’s about having the time, space, and cashflow to support yourself and your family, and give back to the community.
I know that a lot of people, especially women, are going to read this book and miss the message, or see the title and not read it because they are stuck in a story about what they deserve or who they think they aren’t. They are going to think this is about budgeting and investing and be disappointed. They will continue to make broke ass decisions instead of million dollar decisions. They are not going to make money and impact in their lives and in the lives of others.
But for those that do read it, I hope it inspires them to play a bigger game, to go out and build community with like minds that will help them reach their goals and create a ripple effect. Because we should all be millionaires.