Ep #174: It’s About The Money and Not At All

You are listening to episode 174 of The Confident Coaches Podcast, the one where we talk about money. Let’s go.

Welcome to The Confident Coaches Podcast, a place for creating the self-confidence you need to do your best work as a life coach. If you want to bring more boldness, more resilience, and more joy to your work, this is the place for you. I’m Amy Latta, let’s dive in.

All right, coaches, so I’m just going to be honest with you. I’m a little smelly cat(ish) today. I’ve caught yet another cold, but I think the sexy voice will lend to this conversation, we are talking about money. Money. We want it. We don’t. Got it. We want more of it. It’s still not enough. And it’s really funny.

This conversation is coming right after the Luck vs Hard Work episode. Kind of, it’s kind of a two-part series in contradictions. And I love that because, this is reality, right? All of life lies between two things, and specifically talking about money as in doing this life coaching business thing that you’re doing.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t about the money, and yet it is about the money or it’s all about the money, and also not at all, and both of these things are true at the same time, just like last week, there’s luck and there’s hard work, and the truth lies somewhere in between the two.

The most popular episode I’ve ever had in 174 episodes. That interview I did last month with Mark Butler, actually at this point, I think that interview came out in January, because this is actually coming out in March. So in January I did an interview with my CFO, Mark Butler, and we were talking all about how we are both disrupting the coaching industry and the conversations that we’re having. And so much of the conversation is around money. And somebody had some feedback where they said, well, in reference to Mark, assuming that Mark was a multimillion-dollar coach, was her commentary was like, I listened to the whole thing.

But it’s really easy for coaches who are making that kind of money to say it’s not about the money. So let’s talk about the money.

So first of all, I said at the time, and Mark did confirm, he’s, he’s not a million-dollar coach . He’s doing great. Okay? He runs a pretty lean and mean business. It’s perfectly solid, not too crazy.

Business expenses, great profit. It’s what he would call a beautiful business. That’s his language. He actually has a podcast called that. So I’m not going to take that name. And I want to circle back around to that idea of what a beautiful business is and this idea of like, well, it’s easy to say it’s not about the money when you got the money.

So let’s talk about it. Let’s, I want to really dive into this conversation and I’m going to share some things in this episode that they might very well contradict things that I’ve said. If they’re going to contradict things, messages that we hear all of the time, I’m going to contradict a lot of things and, and share a lot of vulnerable points about my experience into the foray of big life coaching money.

Because I think it’s really, really important because it’s about the money and not at all. I don’t care how much money you’re making, really understanding that now will help you so much further. None of us are here to not make. Okay. And let me be really clear because I used to say this, I love it so much. I do it for free.

Okay? If you’re saying that, then you’re probably going to keep doing it for free. You know, I would do this without getting paid means. Well, you’re probably not going to get paid that much. So if you are on the opposite end of the spectrum, going like, I don’t really need to make any money, I just want to have a couple clients and enjoy this.

You’re literally telling money I don’t want you. Now, that’s not what this conversation is really about, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t say, listen, if you are of the mentality that you love coaching so much, you do it for free. You’re going to do it for free, literally telling money, you’re not welcome here.

Okay? Love it. But then listen to the rest of this conversation because I think pieces of it are really going to land for you. It only makes sense that if you have knowledge that helps others and you spend time and hours of your life devoted to helping other people, that you should be well compensated, right?

We think about doctors, lawyers, really any professional that provides a service to other people. Mechanics, it doesn’t even really matter who it is. Your massage therapist, your eye doctor. It’s about making. It’s about an exchange of value. It’s about an exchange of money for goods and services. This is literally how even before money existed, humans did this with the exchange of goods and bartering.

It is about making money, getting something in return for your time and your expertise. That right there. Some of y’all need lots of coaching on that. Right now I don’t really have expertise. Yes, you do. also not what this episode is about, but yes, yes you do. And if you don’t know how you do, you need to get into Free to Paid Coach. Like right now. You need to get in there like yesterday.

By the time you’re in Path to 100k you should for sure have that knowledge down. Every one of you listening has expertise you can share with someone else that will help them, and that is worth making money for.

And that is why we are here. Because it is about making money, money that you’re going to need to run your business. It costs money to run a business. You have expenses, and when you’re brand new, you may not have a lot of expenses, but like, you’re going to need a computer and a phone and an internet connection, right?

You’re going to need, you know, maybe you are going to need to pay for Zoom, some other tech stuff, maybe a microphone if you’re going to be hosting a podcast. It’s totally about the money. Things cost money to run your business. They don’t have to cost a lot of money. You don’t have to put up a lot of money at first, but you still need some.

Because it is about the money probably, you’re going to want to grow, right? You’re probably going to want to hire a coach. Probably want to find that $1,000 to join Free to Paid Coach or $250 for the next four months that costs money. You might need a podcast editor or a virtual assistant, maybe some small how-to programs now you better not be buying any how-to programs without getting into Free to Paid Coach.

Make sure you have a coach who’s coaching you to help you implement even business books. They cost money. So, of course this is about the money because you’re going to want to grow and you’re going to want to put some investment into your business, like just in the Path to 100k. Today we talked about the revenue we need to make in a month to create an income we want to have every month.

So your revenue is your sales, but your income, that’s your money, that’s your money to decide if you’re going to reinvest it back in the business to decide if you’re going to draw that out of the business and use it for your own personal expenses. But your income is your money. We should absolutely be thinking about how much money you want to make, right?

Lots of coaches make 100k and beyond and spend almost every bit of it. Or make 100k and beyond to a certain level where they’re consistently reinvesting back into the business. And I was coached and counseled to make very big investments very early in my, after I was certified very early in my business.

And while I’ve sold over 1.3 million in coaching over the course of 10 years. Amy and Trey are not sitting on piles of cash. I have paid my coaches, just my coaches and not any of my other expenses more than I’ve ever paid myself. Something I would not advise you to do year after year, by the way, or you’re continuously paying more and more and more to keep working with the same person and the next thing you know, that person has made more money off of my business than I have made off of my own business.

And I’m ne would never advise somebody to do that because you are in business to figure out what you want to spend that money. So, yeah, it’s totally about the money, right? You want to have money to reinvest in your business to grow and expand after your expenses are paid. Invest in coach, and maybe we’re, maybe now we’re going on a little bit further, right?

Maybe now it’s time to invest in that more expensive program, right? It’s like that, that graduation from Free to Paid Coach into Path to 100k or into a one-on-one situation, you know, that more expensive coach, that upgraded program, maybe it’s time to invest in a website or Kajabi or something beyond just like a, a free one-pager somewhere.

So yeah, it’s about the money. It’s about the money to grow beyond that initial stage. And then guess what? You want to have some money right here. I reject the idea that you should break even up to six figures. I was told this. I reiterated this over and over again and lots of coaches I know they did grow super-fast because they didn’t take a dime out of their business until they hit two or three or $400,000 a year, or six or $700,000 a year.

Like it’s very easy to sit side by side. I’m taking a full paycheck going through payroll. So my profitability doesn’t look as high, but the person sitting next to me is making twice as much and isn’t pulling anything out of their business. They don’t have to. Everything they need is already taken care of.

Not everybody has that ability. And listen, it’s awesome if you can do that. It really is. I don’t disparage anybody that doesn’t have to take a personal dime out of the business, except for maybe a little bit here or there. You know, like these are the stories that you aren’t hearing on people’s podcasts.

These are the stories you aren’t hearing of people growing massively fast because they haven’t taken money out. They haven’t needed to, they haven’t needed that money to live off of, and I think about that. I really do. We look at these examples and we think, wow. Look at how they skyrocketed/

Maybe they’re younger without kids. Maybe they have, maybe they’re not neuro divergent like I am, you know, maybe they have a spouse who’s paying bills. I had that privilege. I had that luxury. I could grow my business and we didn’t have tons of money for me to invest, but it was very easy for me to reinvest into my business.

And I received an inheritance from a grandparent, when my grandma passed away, that I was able to make that first really big coaching investment. That five-figure coaching investment was able to do that because I knew my husband was covering my bills. Not every single one of you listening has that ability, or maybe some of you, you know, have elderly parents you need to take care of.

Not everyone can reinvest over and over, taking very little out of their business because they don’t have a lot of needs. So for sure it is about the money. And then there’s beyond meeting the needs you may have that someone else doesn’t have. There’s money in the bank doing nothing, not earmarked for anything, just money sitting in your bank to be used however you want in the.

Money to invest, money to pay for your kid’s college money. That’s just going to sit there for a pretty day money for a giant trip to The Bahamas. I don’t know. I don’t know why I said The Bahamas. I actually meant Bora Bora. I was picturing Bora Bora and said Bahamas. Two very different places. Maybe it’s a trip to Bora Bora or The Bahamas.

Not that there’s anything wrong with The Bahamas. This is where you really have to change your stories about yourself, the kind of person you want to be with money. Are you going to spend it on luxury clothing and bags? Listen, I thought this was fun for all of about a few months before I realized, wait, am I paying for a high-end mastermind just to compare handbag versus purchases or to get the coaching that I need to take Amy lot of coaching to a world domination, right?

We love to see those things. We love to share those things on stories and on Facebook and yes, they’re wonderful to be able to have money to spend. However you really want to spend it, and this is where we start talking about that “fuck you money energy.” Money we’ve been told isn’t really allowed for us. It’s reserved for others. I believe every single one of you has fuck you money waiting for you in the future if that is what you want, if that’s what you desire for yourself. Not everyone does because. It’s not about the money. Life isn’t any easier there than it is right now. I mean, okay, that’s not entirely true.

You need to have your food paid; your housing paid. We are definitely looking at inflation. The cost of goods have gone up. Everything’s more expensive right now. Some things are starting to level back out again. This is dropping March of 2023, so I don’t actually know exactly where it is or when you’re listening to this.

You’ve heard about that perfect salary for happiness. Studies say it’s $75,000. Now that study was a few years ago. With inflation, it might need to be a little higher, 75, 80. 90, we’re not exactly sure exactly what it is in 2023, but let’s say you will find your optimum happiness around $80,000 a year.

After that. There’s diminishing returns on your happiness once your needs are met. And of course this is assuming everybody’s family size is different. There’s a number, and it’s not as high as we think it is, right? That once your needs are met and you have a little cushion, money does not bring any more ease or happiness into your life.

The money doesn’t because once your needs are met and you really are okay, because it’s not about the money. If you struggle to handle money now, you will actually struggle when you have more money because it’s not about the money. It’s about how you view yourself and your right to have money in the first place.

Listen, most of us have money baggage, right? Especially women. When most of society has said, we are bad with money, it’s a running joke that women don’t know how to handle. It’s a running joke. It’s the theme of, you know, at least sitcoms I grew up with in the eighties and nineties, and speaking of bad with money in the olden times we’re bad with credit.

We weren’t even guaranteed by law to be able to get credit until the year I was born, 1974. No wonder half the sitcoms of the seventies and eighties were just like the, the, the dumb mom who couldn’t handle finance. The dad had to make sure of that. The dad had to negotiate the car because women were too dumbed to ask questions about money.

Like this is the mentality that’s been around. So it makes sense if you are a woman, and you have money baggage it makes sense. If you’re a man, you might have money baggage because it was placed on you that you would be the sole provider for yourself and for your family. Men have it too. It’s very different.

The reasons why are different, but they have money. Baggage also your right to have money in the first place, how you relate to money, having more of it doesn’t make that relationship easier. because it’s not about the money, you’re still going to argue with your partner.

Your family is still going to act crazy. People are still going to cut you off in traffic. You’re still going to have anxiety and fear and doubt because there is no off-ramp to the human experience because it’s not about the money. It doesn’t fix those things. Money doesn’t actually create less stress. It certainly doesn’t get, create less stress in your business.

This where I’m going to get full disclosure on you. When you are in a constant pursuit of money, there’s never a place where you just “are” in your business. I want you to really think about this. I think Mark and I might have talked about this a little bit, but I have spent so much time really thinking about a place where you just are.

You’re not trying to pursue the next thing. You’re not trying to grow. You’re not trying to expand. We’re not trying to launch new things. You’re just at peace in exactly where your business is. I have never been there in my business. It actually kind of breaks my heart a little bit because I placed myself in those rooms of constant pursuit of the next, of the higher, of the more, and me just handing more and more of my money out of my bank account into other people’s bank accounts in that pursuit, realizing can I just be.

When we talk about making 100k, 200k, a million, don’t think for a second that automatically comes with more peace. It almost always doesn’t. If you think the peace is going to come when the money is there, it’s guaranteed that it won’t, because then it’s about maintaining that money and growing that, making sure that money’s not going to go away.

Hiring people to help you manage that money, hiring people to help you run that business. It’s about that next launch and making sure you hit your numbers and making sure your numbers always getting higher and higher, and always challenge yourself and the next big things.

Always pushing, always growing. Some of the most successful coaches I have ever met are crazy about the next step of their business and how they’re going to get there. Where’s the ease? because it’s not about the money. Listen, lots of money buys you lots of access to multimillions may mean private jets paying people to do all of your little tasks you don’t want to do.

I would be lying to you if I said I didn’t want to travel the world and I didn’t want to experience all kinds of things, and that’s going to require more money than I have right now to do all of the things I want to do in my life. And I’d be lying to you if I said, I don’t love the idea of never having to worry if there’s enough money in the bank to just say, yeah, let’s sign our kiddo up for that soccer camp or that baseball camp, or this pre-college camp.

Let’s go ahead and do that. Let’s go ahead and buy that. Buy him that instrument that he needs and not have to keep scouring the world trying to find a used one. True story. Yes. There is an ease in that right there, but there’s not an ease. Like as soon as that thing is over, that ease becomes gone because there’s still the need to replace that and to keep growing.

Money does bring luxurious things, camps for kids experience. We can’t imagine not having doesn’t mean more mental ease because it’s not about the money. So what is it all about? I really love Mark’s name for things that the beautiful business, I’ll probably put my own language around that, so I really want you to think about that.

If it is about the money because you should be charging money for your business. You should be paying for goods and services. It does cost money to invest in your business and to grow your business, especially in those early days. So in so much about, this is about the money and it, and there is this point, 75,000 maybe, maybe it’s 80k, who knows.

There is this point at which you will have achieved like an ease, but past that, it’s not so much about the money because there’s not more ease with more money. You still have to address your relationship with money. You still have to examine the stories that you have about yourself.

As a person who has money, are you allowed to have it? Are you good with it? Are people with money, good people? Are you still a good person when you have the amount of money that you think you want to have? All of these stories need to be unpacked and addressed. So in this podcast, here’s where I want to leave you.

This idea of this beautiful business of an easy business. of an ease filled business. Here’s the question I want you to ask yourself. Roughly, roughly add up your, your expenses in your business. Totally ballpark it. It’s okay. About how much, like what kinds of things are you paying for? Just like a real quick jot down what your rough monthly expenses are now.

Money in your bank after expenses that makes your life easier right now that elevates where you are because your goals should be that. How many clients do you need to sign to cover that? And the simpler your business, the simpler to get there, right? The easier it is to know what that number is.

I need to sign so many one-on-one clients at so many dollars to hit the amount of money that allows me to pay my expenses and bring home an income that makes my life easier. Right now, this is my goal for you. This is, this is my goal for you, for me, for all of us. I love this so much. You know, for me, I’ve got boys that are in their high school years right now.

I have one son who’s we just registered him for senior year, and my other son, we’ve just registered him for his freshman year. My time’s limited with them. Once they are gone, Trey and I are going to be free to pursue whatever we want. What makes our life easier, that feels expansive. That feels open. That feels easeful.

It might be sexier for me to be like, you know what? We’re making a million dollars this year. This year, and I could totally pull it out of the bag. I could totally make that happen. It’s going to require time away from my boys that are here right now though, and I don’t want to do that.

It’s not even so much time. It’s going to require mental capacity that I would much rather spend on them. The funny thing is, and I don’t know if this is going to be true, as soon as I take my, my focus off of that goal, and instead I focus on what makes my life easier right now, and I’ve actually been doing this for a couple of months.

Ever since Mark and I had those conversations back in December, I have felt so much more expansive and open, and ease filled so much more. I am so much at ease in my own business, not stressing. And you want to know what? My DMs and my inbox have never been fuller right now. It’s almost like when you let go of the reins of it’s about the money.

It’s about the money, but it’s about the money. You find out where it’s not.

I want for you that beauty, that ease filled. To be clear, before I move on, I still have my grand vision. I still have giant dreams of how I’m serving the world. How Amy Latta is serving the world. Oh, don’t think for a second. I don’t have grand visions. I do. They’re right there. I see on my wall, written on a board across the room.

I know where I’m headed long term and also short term. This beautiful, ease filled business. This is what I want to offer to you. This is available to you right now. What do we need to do to get you there? And this is my offer to you. What do we need to do to get you there? Let’s make it happen. You already know if you’re a brand-new coach, you know what room you need to be in.

If you’re a brand-new coach or a coach that’s been floundering for years, you know you need to be in Free to Paid coach already. But Path to 100k, which is my group coaching program, I’ve actually been working really hard behind the scenes, and again, work I’ve been doing with Mark on making this a more ease filled business for me.

And also how does it serve? Changing it from a closed group coaching container, meaning you can only start the two times a year to a start when you need to be in this room. An open enrollment group coaching mastermind. That is now what Path to 100k is. You can now actually enroll in Path to 100k and get started if these are the conversations you want to be having, you can get started with us.

And you need this room when you set your sights on that beautiful, ease filled business because we’re going to define exactly what that business looks like, how much money makes your life easier right now, and then coach you to why should people hire you and no one else. The program is still the same. It’s still the coaching stuff.

I’ve just changed the structure of it so that when you’re ready to get in, it’s waiting for, and of course if you want that one-on-one focus, I just signed a new one-on-one client this week. She’s already making those higher levels of income and here’s how we’re going to make her beautiful business.

We’re going to take the same amount of money that she’s already making right now, a good like $10 to $12,000 a month, and we’re not going to grow it. We’re going to coach one-on-one so that she can make that same amount of business with more ease, less feeling stretched to the ends. This is my goal for you. I’m like, let’s, let’s replicate this income with you, not spinning your wheels.

Then we can set your site on that ho higher dollar number. going to do the same thing for her that I’m doing for me, even though we’re in two different. I love this idea. Let’s make ease filled beautiful businesses together. I invite you to come work with me in whichever capacity you fit into whichever container that you fit in there.

If you’re brand new, let’s go free to paid coach. If you’re ready to scale to 100k, but you just don’t know how you’re going to do it, let’s get you into Path to 100k, which is a group mastermind if you want the one-on-one. Then let’s see if I still have a spot open for you.

All right, my friends, I can’t wait to hear from you what you needed to hear from this podcast episode. I want to hear your feedback on what your views on money are. We do in Free to Paid Coach. We do have an entire section about feeling better asking for money.

It’s literally step two in my five-step process. It’s, learn how to handle the discomfort of asking for money. Learn how to feel less discomfort asking for money.

We start the money conversation there. Once you’re in Path to 100k, I actually have an entire section on your money relationship. There’s an entire section in the workbook and the materials all about how do you view yourself with money? What are your views with money? Here’s the thing, we don’t need everybody to have the same view of money.

Some people want to make as much money as they possibly can in that room. Some people are really happy with the money they’re making. They just don’t want to be so spent everywhere. So, like torn in 20 different directions. I don’t care what your desires for the money are, what I care is that you were building a beautiful, ease filled business that you know why people should hire you and no.

Let’s go do that together. Tell me what you needed to hear out of this podcast episode. Hit me up at @iamamylatta on Instagram. When you see this, I cannot wait to hear from you. The messages that you guys have been sending in the DMs and in the comments, I read them all. I appreciate them all. I try to get back to every single one of you.

I know that you can do this and we’re going to do it together. You ready? Let’s go. So excited to see what you create in the world. Talk to you next week.

Coach, it’s time to sign your first free client, your first paid client, your next client, and to learn how to do it consistently and having a hell of a lot of fun along the way. This is exactly what you’re going to do in Free to Paid Coach. It’s the only program giving you step-by-step what to do to become a paid coach and step-by-step how to handle the roller coaster emotions that come with doing what you need to do to become a paid coach.

If you know you can’t not do this life coaching thing, but believing that you can do it, handling rejection and remembering how to do all of those things shuts you down, the Free to Paid Coach Community is waiting for you. Find everything that you’re looking for inside. It’s only $1,000. Payments are available, and then you’re in forever.

Visit www.amylatta.com/ftpc to join us right now. See you inside. Let’s get paid, coach.

Thanks so much for listening to The Confident Coaches Podcast. I invite you to learn more. Come visit me at amylatta.com and until next week, let’s go do epic stuff.