Deciphering Your Relationship with Money with Susie Carder

0:00
Welcome to The Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. I'm Josh Elledge, Founder and CEO of UpMyInfluence.com. We turn entrepreneurs into media celebrities, grow their authority, and help them build partnerships with top influencers. We believe that every person has a unique message that can positively impact the world. stick around to the end of the show, we're all reveal how you can be our next guest on one of the fastest growing daily inspiration podcasts on the planet in 15 to 20 minutes. Let's go.

All right with us right now. We've got Susie Carder, Susie, you are known as the Profit Coach. You're found on the web at Susie Carder.com. And that's C A R D… no C A R D E R.com. Thank you so much for joining us.

0:52
Thank you Josh. I always say C A R D like has in dinero dollar er.

0:57
I like it. I like it. That's a good one. Yes, right, right, exactly. And that's helpful by the way for like media training, is we encounter that so like, you know, with my other company, I'm known as the savings Angel. And they always get it wrong if I don't emphasize like so lots of savings, one Angel, that's me, otherwise, saving angels and all this other name. Right. So Susie, I think this is going to be a pretty exciting conversation because what I have found is that entrepreneurs like to make money. How did you get into this space?

1:32
Well, I love to make money.

1:36
Really more, there was nine brothers and sisters, Bobby Ronnie Stevie Terry, Joni Shelley Susie Kenny, Debbie, my dad was a machinist. My mom was a seamstress. So there was no money. But my dad did say if you want money, go make money. So as I have been an entrepreneur since I was 10 years old, right? I would sell anything, do anything like to make the money because you know, we didn't have any. And so you know, I didn't like hand me down clothes. I'm one of my own babies. So I've always been this serial entrepreneur. And I started out as my vocation was, I was a hairdresser. And I built one of the largest salons and spas in the country where the top 1% the nation, top 10% of the world. And then from there, we created a training and development company for the beauty industry. And we sold that to recurs publishing about 10 years ago. So my path has always been to grow a business, sell a business, grow a business, sell a business, you know, and always being that, you know, hustler mentality of an entrepreneur, right, my formal education is that like, I needed education and like, what do I need to learn because if I got sued Oh, that sued I don't want that happen again, but I need to do but my passion is the money, right? I can see money everywhere. Give me your p&l. I will find money you're leaving on the table, Josh because it's everywhere. There's interesting things that we do or don't do that looking at whether it's pricing, whether it's not projections, like there's simple foundational stuff all around your business, finance You know that we're not taught as entrepreneurs, right? Your your CEO, CFO or your accountant will give you some p&l, and most people just shove them in a drawer. Right? But that's gold, right that there's, there's a story in the numbers of what's happening and what's not happening. And so early on as an entrepreneur, I just had to figure out how to make money. Right? How do I do it? How many clients do I need to make the goal that I wanted to make, you know, and break it down to the simplest form? So we have a mantra in our company that math is money and money is fun, right? Most people hate math. They hate looking at their profit and loss. I hate balancing their checkbook. But boy, Josh, when you get this, it's the foundation of everything that we do. It opens up so much possibility for you.

3:42
So what would you say Susie? Are the primary objections to getting in? Is it just because balancing checkbook checkbooks or is boring and we don't like it? Is it? Is it that or do you think it's deeper and it has to do with our relationship With money and our worth and that sort of thing?

4:03
Well, 85% of our money mindset comes from our subconscious. So we have our conscious beliefs around money, the ones we know about, but 85% of them are the subconscious, that stuff that that's inherited. We call that your inherited pass from your mother, your grandmother, your grandparents, right? If you grew up in a church, it's your spiritual upbringing. It's your community who you're hanging out with writing, you're hanging out with people that have a healthy relationship with money, or everyone's saying I'm broke. I don't have any Don't ask. Right. So it's really looking at there's many different areas that we look at that stem from our subconscious. So the first thing we have to do is what what is your belief around money? I had to I had to reprogram my belief around money because my belief was, there is none Don't ask. If money doesn't grow on trees, we all have those things that people said money is the root of all evil, like what did you hear growing up, and if you don't work on them and you don't treat, treat that and reinvent that, that will run you you can make money. Millions and still lose millions, I have a client that we did 1.5 million in sales and she spent 1.7. So we're, we're not making money, you might be making gross, but we're not making any money. We're not building our wealth, you know, as entrepreneurs. So it's not just the top line that we need to look at. It's the whole picture of your business to go, what's that thing I need to focus on? So yeah, your unconscious will run you. So that's part of really creating a healthy relationship with money, but most people didn't do well in school and math, right? Or don't have a healthy relationship with it, like, so my goal is to uncover what is it and then look at where the possibilities are. And if you play it as a game, right, that it's a game, right? How much we can make what's possible, right really inventing your future. You have to do the action, like love people say, I read the secret. One of my clients is Lisa Nichols, who is one of the most sought after speakers in the secret and people would literally say I read the book and I'm meditating and I'm leading. No, you have to go do something

6:03
right. Go to action. You've got

6:07
to have the action. So, yes, all the goal setting is important. The visualization is important in the goal boards are important. The visual boards are important. But if we're not doing any action, it's not just going to happen magically checks aren't going to shut them out if you don't do anything to get those checks in the mail. Right.

6:21
Right. So Susie, growing up, I know that, you know, I had, you know, wonderful, you know, blue collar. I'd say you know, rustbelt kind of parents wonderful, very, very loving, but, boy, I heard a lot of negative messages about rich people, right, and that rich people were just, you know, taking advantage. They weren't being fair. They weren't paying their fair share, and just a lot of negative stereotypes. Now, I could tell you that well, I'm working very hard. I want to be rich. I don't believe like that. My parents, but it's it's more insidious than that. Right? It's when we say it's subconscious. How does this end up manifesting these these deep seated beliefs?

7:14
Yes. So I love it. It's even in our culture today, right? You look at the news, you look at, you know, we're talking about taxes. We're talking about the new elections, we're talking about taxing corporations, and the rich people. So it's still present, right? It's not just your parents. It's and that's again, an inherited past. We're keep saying it, where wealth really creates opportunity for our country was built on the backbone of ownership, right? So I don't want to lose that. And so part of it is looking at what are your money blocks, right. So we have a program that we unlock your money blocks, it was so fascinating. I've been working in this conversation, my wife, right, my whole adult life, right, and I'm a little season so it's been a while just saying. And so even me looking at what's happening subconsciously You know, there was observability issue right? Because in a large family that nobody gets something right you're trying to be equal to all nine children. Right? So I had to really reframe and reprogram my observability that I deserve it because if not then you sabotage it right you get right to the precipice whenever the precipice is right and then you sabotage it money has also has a masculine energy to it. So if you have any kind of masculine stuff, Father issue men issues like I could make money all day long, Josh but my fingers, right, because I had this whole relationship with my dad wanting approval seeking approval. I did dive deep in my unconscious to go where does that come from? And why can I create it but I can't keep it right and really reprogramming by doing an exercise that I look at what are all my unconscious beliefs and then I reframe them. So I have a little quiz that I have people take, they check off them, you know, we do through if you're familiar with muscle testing, So we do muscle testing your body knows. Right so it's a fascinating exercise. It was so fascinating when I learned this and then see what's all that that programming underneath that is from generational, right from and it can be inherited. It's it may not have been even talked about in your family. We didn't really talk about money in our family it was taboo like that was rude to talk about money. I find a lot of in our culture still still rude to talk about money when I ask people what are your gross sales? What's your profitability, they look at me in the eyes get big like, yeah, I've just asked something incredibly personal. Like, if I'm a business coach, I have to know this information. This is going to help us get clear. So there's a lot of work that can be done on the subconscious to see what's that thing that underlining belief that might be running you right? You want to look at the symptoms, what are the things that you're sabotaging my sabotage was that spend more than I made to go Okay, that that's not really working. I can't be this profit coach. If I'm spending all my money, it's not just about Making money, you know? So you have to have that one desire to know what's what's at the core of that? Yes, I can teach you to make millions all day long. But if we don't work on that other side, we're just going to keep being in this vicious circle. I mean, you never build wealth, right? wealth is the money that's left over profit is the value I bring as a business owner to the business. Right? It's not my sales. It's my profit as the business owner and the entrepreneur.

10:24
Yeah. So we've talked about values. The next couple of things I'd like to talk about next would be belief. And then thirdly, I'd like to talk about a little bit more to kind of talk about activity. So number two belief and so because I've made seven figures a year before, you know, with this new venture, like you can't tell me that I can't do that again, like it's too late. I already know I can. I've already proven it. Right. And so how can someone who's not made seven figures a year develop that belief? Yes, is that belief is so important, because it really and I remember before Making? It's like, Oh my gosh, I got I dream of that. I think that I can other people have been able to do it. If they can do it,

11:08
I should be, right. Here's what I do when I work my clients, Josh, I take it down to the simplest form a million dollars scares the heck out of people, especially if you've had high six figures, and you're trying to break that point, right? A million dollars can scare people. But if I can break it down to the simplest form and say, Josh, how many of units do we need to create? Right? Because when working with entrepreneurs over the past 30 years, people are either good with the gross number, or they're good with the number of things they have to do. So if I say, Josh, you have to sell 10 of these programs, 10 of these programs and 10 of these programs, you have to do that this month, right? And then then we focus on how am I going to sell those 10 things. That's where people don't look at the value of their database or the actions that they're doing. Right. So if we break it down to the simplest form and take the scary out because it is a million dollars, you're like how am I going to do that? Let's not look at that. million. Let's look at what are the small actions that we can take to get to the million? So one is looking at are you more comfortable with a number? Or are you more comfortable with the unit? Right? So we want to look at both the number will get us to the end game, but the units that's way simpler than hitting, you know that gross number, whether it's a million to 3,000,005 million, whatever the number is, I've taken clients from 80,000 to 10 million. So and doing it this way of looking at let's look at the unit's creating a really clear budget but making it fun. Let's again, play a game the game is here's my must meaning. Josh, you can't go home until you hit this goal. Yeah, I used to be like when I was on the road, my partner would say you cannot come home unless you sell $10,000 I'm like,

12:44
okay,

12:46
you know, cuz we're just playing a game. So you want to look at what's your muscle goal, and then what's your stretch goal? And then you'll fall somewhere in between. So you're not so attached to just the one like what do you play and what what what actions would we have to do? What kind We're going to be in and who do we need to be with? Right? your tribe is your vibe, right? If I look at my community speaks more of who I am, and keeps me empowered and keeps me energized to keep playing a big game. If I'm the only big fish in the pond. I gotta have other people that are playing a big game with me.

13:18
Right? You know, Susie, it's interesting, even now, you know, when I think about it, I had a conversation with our VC CFO. And so he's talking about, you know, you know, when we hit five, 8 million, and I'm like, you know, like, Man, that's it. I told him, I was like, that sounds scary to me, because I've never run a company at that size. You know, I know, for us to hit those numbers. That's a lot of that's a lot of people on the team. And, you know, it's the operations of that because I just don't have any experience in that. And, you know, and it was really interesting that that was my initial response to that. You know, even though I know ultimately, we it's my destiny. Do that. I just have no idea what that looks like at that level, like, you know, are we like, you know, is it like, you know, we've got the, you know, downtown Orlando and we've got like, you know, the two top floors of Yeah, who knows what that looks like, right? But it's just like, I've never done that before that seems scary. So that I think that's where it's helpful to walk with someone who can kind of hold your hand say, don't worry about that. I've heard other people do that. It's, you can rest on my confidence until you gain your own.

14:36
Well, I always say that for the entrepreneur, right? What's the highest income producing activity only you can do? Right? So this is your genius, right? You love helping businesses you love like this podcast, you're an amazing interview. I as your coach want to keep you in that spot. Then the next person is that the first person I always hire outside of myself is the operational person. Yeah, the operational person is the person that gets stuff done for you. All right, so we stay in our lane of genius, right? So I'm doing this I'm doing programs I'm teaching, I'm building content, right? I'm selling, that's my job. Those are the highest income producing activity. Me processing are not the highest income producing activity, me doing social media, not the highest income producing activity, right? So you want to look at what are all those minutia tasks that are wasting your valuable time because my time being with a client being on the phone serving is much more productive. Even though it might seem like I'm saving time right and saving pennies, but we're losing dollars. Yeah, my coach always said don't spend all their time on Penny jobs. And as scary as that is because you're like, but I don't have any money to pay anyone. Well, if you freed yourself up, you would have more time the time would give us the access to go network, go be on sales calls with people connection calls, whatever you want to call them, right? Some people get freaked out about sales. Well, I'm sorry, we're entrepreneurs we have to sell. Nothing happens until we sell something. I can't give my gift to the world. Unless sell something to somebody. So it's a different mindset of shifting from not selling, I'm serving. Yeah. And my, the gift that I bring, right is financial freedom, the gift that you bring is a whole uplevel influence, right to go. That's your gift that you bring that let's monetize that all day long.

16:18
Yeah. You know, one thing, Susie, I've been an internet developer since the mid 90s. Again, aging myself. I've been in this game a while. Yeah, I'll tell you that. That has been the, you know, that's been the most difficult thing for me to, you know, kind of slap my own hand and say, I do not, do not update that web page. I know, you think you could do that right now? And yes, it's only gonna take you 30 minutes. But, you know, it's, you know, even if your developer doesn't do as great a job. You got to keep letting them do that and they will get better and better at that. But yeah, it's I catch myself all the time.

16:58
I have to have a I have a sticky one. The highest income producing activity only you can do and it's on my computer because I get caught up. I'm like, wait, why am I booking my own airfare like, I need to be talking to a client not booking your own airfare, just to keep managing, so that I'm offloading that stuff so I can be present to what's the highest income producing activity. That's a game changer. You get that in your mindset, because then you start evaluating it. Does this make sense for me to do it? I catch myself to just like you do Josh, like, dang it, I bet and again, we just think we can do it quicker, faster

17:31
to the person who's watching or listening to us right now. Let me get your gay. Focus on like, okay, Susie, tell me about the sticky note what it says and where you put it.

17:42
So the sticky note is on my computer, and it says, What's the highest income producing activity only you can do? I look at it every day. I look at my schedule. I look at my emails, the emails that come in I blocked time. Right so Have 30 minutes in the morning to go through my emails. I offload what my assistant what my manager can do. And then I'm only answering the ones that have to do with that my highest income producing activity, not the minutia, right, that's a game changer because it frees up 80% of your time to focus on the 20% of the things that are going to make you your company the biggest return on investment, right minds being with clients doing interviews like this speaking on stage, right, talking to clients, upselling clients servicing clients, that's my genius. That's my sweet spot. And although we can do a lot of things and you just set it I can do a lot of things I'm granted a lot of things but I have no business doing them at this level.

18:40
So as soon as he You are the author of power your profits and people can buy that on Amazon Barnes noble anywhere you buy books, really quick, what will people find in that book and Who is it for?

18:54
Oh my God, this book game changer. Can I just say this book is 30 years Everything I had to do to build to $10 million companies for multi million dollar companies and it's the roadmap, right? I give case study. So I tell stories about my clients. I tell I tell them myself a lot of all the mistakes that I made. And then I have a great assessments in there. I love assessments, I love assessments, personality assessment whizzes to go, where am I at? What do I need to focus on in my sales, my marketing my operations in my finance. So it's really a roadmap to building a seven eight figure business.

19:31
Juicy juicy,

19:32
so they can find so our friend who's been hanging out with us listen to our conversation can find this at Susiecarder.com. That's S U S I E C A R D, for dinero, E R.com. And so it Susie got a couple of other things on your website as well.

19:54
I do so I have something called your profit indicator. And so it's a business assessment with it. video that I walk you through. So you can see where's my business currently at? Right? I do this in my business every year to assess because a half a million dollar business is different than a million dollar business. A million dollar business is different than a $3 million business. And so you need to ongoingly look at what do I need to upgrade? What areas is my business weakest in? What am I strongest in so that you can put a strategy in place to go this is what I need to focus on right now. Whether it's your finances, whether it's your sales team or getting a sales team or your sales process. So it's a great way to assess your business. I am here and what do I need to work on this year?

20:39
Susie Carder, you are the Profit Coach and you're the author of the book power, your profits. Thank you so much for joining us.

20:48
Thank you. I appreciate it. And remember, wealth is your birthright. It's not for some of us. It's for all of us.

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