What we believe about ourselves and our potential to earn profit is important, and more often than not translates straight to our bottom line. While it can be challenging to change up the patterns we’ve always lived with, viewing money from a positive mindset is a skill that anyone can learn. It’s never too late to make a change and begin creating profit with intention and the belief that good things are coming your way. 

WELCOME CLARE WOOD

Today I chat with Clare Wood, qualified accountant turned money mentor and first-time author. Clare helps business owners to massively scale their profits through the power of money management and the concepts of money mindset. She teaches that our beliefs and past experiences with money ultimately affect how we act in business, and in her book Intentional Profit, Clare aims to inspire people to master their mindset for a wildly wealthy business. 

In our conversation, Clare defines intentional profit and shares some of the money mindset challenges that she continues to experience in her own life. She shares how she continues to work through them, and her thoughts around building a business that will continue to grow month upon month, and year by year. 

DREAMING BIG

Despite creating some amazing successes in her business, Clare has never seen herself as someone extraordinary. She’s just someone who had a big dream and decided to chase it. Sharing the journey that brought her dreams into reality, Clare encourages us to take inspired and aligned actions to move us closer to the things we want.  

MONEY MINDSET

Ten years ago, Clare’s life looked completely different. She was far from achieving the goals she had in mind, and didn’t even know what money mindset was. However, through educating herself and learning the skills required to shift her thinking, Clare started to see her dreams become a reality. She reminds us that we can start to create the life that we want when we believe positive things are coming for us, and take action to make change happen. 

LEANING INTO INTENTIONAL PROFIT

When it comes to investing, there are no guarantees that things will work out. There can be a lot of fear around taking a risk. Having experienced many disappointments in her own business journey, Claire now sees losses as catalysts for learning and growth. She discusses how reframing failure as part of success will cause us to lean into creating profit with intention and confidence. Clare believes in pushing through the discomfort, knowing that what’s on the other side is potentially even bigger and better than expected. 

The path to success and achieving your dreams is not linear, and every business experiences cycles of loss and gain. However, Clare knows from her own experience that changing our learned, problematic patterns around money will set us free from our fear of failure and release us into our potential. 

There’s power in doing money mindset work, and I know that Clare’s wisdom will inspire you to step out and create the strategies that will lead to the business and the life you’ve been dreaming of.

LINKS: 

Clare’s book: Intentional Profit

Where to find Clare Wood: 

Website:   https://clarewood.com 

Instagram: @clare_wood_coach

Facebook: @clarewoodcoach

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarewoodcoach/

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Emily: [00:00:00] 

Hello and welcome back to the show. Now I was at the supermarket yesterday and not only was I getting a lot of laughs and people like peering at the pram cuz Lando is so [00:01:00] noisy, which is pretty funny, but I’m trying to do the shopping quickly putting it at the bottom of the pram in the basket and Lando is just like screaming cuz he can’t talk yet, but he’s making lots of noises and he kind of like shrieks. It’s like this happy little noise. It’s quite funny though. And I’m walking up and down the aisles and people are like peering around looking at this baby and then laughing cause they can see he’s happy.

He’s just like being very vocal. Anyway, so I was at the supermarket and this boy came up to me and said, excuse me, do you have some money for me to buy a drink? And I said, I don’t have any cash, but buy you a drink. And I said, what drink is it that you would like? And hoping like for me healthy. I’m like, hopefully he says water. Then I feel really good about buying him water. Anyway, he said, um, oh, it’s, well, it’s this drink called Prime. It’s this drink that these people have created basically, Paul Logan and KSI. I think that’s right. I could have that totally wrong, that they’ve created together and they’ve got it in this [00:02:00] store and it’s sold out everywhere.

And so we’re walking together, I’m pushing Lando, I’m like, oh my gosh, I’m buying this kid a drink and he, his friend comes over to him and I read on his friend’s jumper, it says So-and-so primary school. I’m like, oh my God. Even worse, he’s in primary school. I should probably not be doing this. Anyway, we’re at the checkout and there is this whole queue of kids and a lot of them with their parents, to buy this drink that has just dropped at that supermarket. I could see it behind the counter, still kind of in the plastic, and I think there’s a limit on the number that they can buy. And I hand over my card, buy this, like drink. He chose the flavour that he wanted, , and I just thought kind of good on this kid for being resourceful.

And if he didn’t have the money, he went and found some money and figured out a way to get what he wanted. So I was kinda like, that’s smart. But also what an amazing feat. What an amazing collaboration and product creation by these two, I [00:03:00] think they’re YouTubers and they’re UFC fighters. I could have a lot of this terminology wrong, by the way, that have teamed up and they were basically rivals in the game, but they have teamed up and created this drink called Prime, and it’s a… it gives you energy. It’s like an energy type of drink, health drink, and it’s just taken teenagers and the world by storm and people are queuing up to get it. And it was quite funny. The guy at the checkout was like, yeah, I heard it doesn’t even taste that good, and the all these parents are like, I don’t even know what’s happening right now, but my kid just wants this drink.

And it’s pretty amazing the power of brand and the power of marketing and the power of capturing imagination and doing things differently.. And for these two guys showing like the rawness, it’s not a Coca-Cola with the really polished ads. It’s not a big franchise. It’s people that took their audience on the journey of them teaming up and creating this [00:04:00] drink and sharing the behind the scenes, and they’re filming it on their phones and having something entertaining to share. And they’re pretty cheeky and mischievous and so many things, but they’re just sharing what they’re doing. And I thought, oh, this is such a good case study in terms of resetting marketing and knowing that things don’t have to be high production value.

But if we can put things out there and find that thing that captures attention and position something so that is has so much desire about it. Cause at the end of the day, it’s just a drink. It probably tastes like a lot of other drinks out there, but it has that brand desirability because of the people behind it.

And this is just showing you as well how it’s not necessarily all about the amount of dollars that you invest in something or having the perfect big corporate business. It really is about taking people on the journey. Having that personal connection with people and that that’s really what can be so, so powerful when it comes to building a brand.

Alrighty, anyway. I had to share that little story. Now [00:05:00] on today’s podcast, I have a return guest, and it is the wonderful Clare Wood, she’s one of my business friends. She’s just super generous, super supportive, and um, has a lot of great stuff to share. And I love, as I, as you’ll hear me say to her in this episode, the way that she is sharing her business experience.

The highs, the lows, her thoughts. And this is another great example of how she’s building her business by taking people on the journey with her in real time. So use that as an inspiration for what this Prime drink has also done. Now, a little bit of a background into So Clare is a qualified accountant, but she has more recently become a money mentor, and she understands that making money is about more than just boring spreadsheets and budgets. It’s also very heavily about your mindset, and she believes that money mindset is your beliefs and past experiences with money, which ultimately affect [00:06:00] how you act in business, which translates straight into your bottom line. Clare has just published her first book called Intentional Profit, which is such a huge feat in itself, and I chat with Clare in today’s podcast episode around what exactly intentional profit is, some of the money challenges and money mindset challenges that she continues to experience, how she has created that unshakable belief in her own success and where that has come from and how she continues to work on it, if a successful business should always be building and growing month upon month and year upon year and what the alternative can look like and so much more when it comes to money and building an intentional business.

So without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Claire Wood.

 So Clare, congratulations on your [00:07:00] book, intentional Prophet. 

Clare: Thank you so much. Thank you. We were just saying off air how you were one of the very first people that I ever told the potential title of the book to, and I love that you liked the name of the book and supported me with that.

Emily: Absolutely. I, yeah, I love it. It’s simple and um, it speaks to what the mission is, what the goal is for it, and I’ve just finished reading it. I’m a pretty quick reader actually. I read it all this morning, Clare. 

Clare: Wow. Yeah. It’s a nice, easy to read book. 

Emily: Yes. And, um, I’ve jotted down some things I wanna discuss with you, but first of all, why don’t you start by introducing who you are? 

Clare: Amazing. Well, thank you having me on the podcast again. My name is Clare Wood and I’m a money mentor. So my background is, I’m actually a qualified accountant. I’m a, a certified practicing accountant by trade, but I now help business owners to massively scale their profits through the power of like both actually getting into their business [00:08:00] financials, like, and I call it money management, but also using concepts of money mindset.

So helping people to think bigger, to dream bigger, and then actually create those amazing things that they want in their businesses and their lives. 

Emily: Ah, and then literally reading a book, Clare, we were just chatting before we hit record. Um, It’s just, it’s just reignited me too, and I think it will for everyone that reads it, like, let’s go do things. Let’s create bigger goals. Let’s like actually think, what is it that I really, really want? Who do I wanna be? What do I wanna have? What do I wanna be doing? Uh, yeah, I love those books that just reignite the fire and reset you. So congratulations. Let’s talk about, I, I think I wanna start with your, one of your manifestation and money creation and all that type of thing, stories from yourself, and it’s around your dream house.

And I just thought the way that you shared it was so practical in terms of what you did to create where you actually are living [00:09:00] now. So would you like to describe where you’re living, what your house is like, and then the, the practical things that you and your husband did to actually g et to where you are now.

Clare: Yeah. Amazing. So the backstory is many years ago when I first started thinking about like, what do I want? Where do I wanna live? And we weren’t even really sure. But I definitely know that I wanted to live by the water. And so my husband and I started our journey by driving to, I’m in Queensland, so we’re driving to the Sunshine Coast, to the Gold Coast, trying to figure out where felt right for us.

And then we narrowed it down that we really wanted to live b y the beach at the Gold Coast. And at that point in time, financially, we were not in a great place. You know, we both run our own businesses. It seemed like this crazy flipping pipe dream. We were struggling to pay our rent, let alone , let alone buying a house.

But I just started the process of walking through homes of going to open homes. Getting clearer and clearer about [00:10:00] exactly where we wanted to be and one day we saw this house and we put in an offer on the house. Now that offer fell through, it didn’t come together. But that house is four houses down from where we now currently live.

So I have photos of me, pointing to the name of our street. I have photos of us. You know, I, I, we used to go and sit at the coffee shop that’s now our local coffee shop. We’d go and sit there like week after week, like being like, imagine when this is our local coffee shop. And now that we’ve actually bought this house, we live on the water.

So we’ve got our own little mini beach at the back of our house, and we are literally in the exact street that we wanted to live on many years later. And, paying off a mortgage in this, the, you know, our dream location. Now, the disclaimer that I do have in the front of the book, you know, it’s not exactly the dream house yet.

It is a little beach shack, but we will be building our dream home here one day. And I can say that with such confidence and integrity, because I’ve done this in so many [00:11:00] different areas of my life before that I know that this will come to fruition. And, you know, as someone yourself, you know, getting to watch you build a, a house, it’s a really, really cool and also stressful process. 

Emily: I’ve heard it’s the best. It’s so good. I loved it. 

Clare: Yeah. And I know that that will happen one day. And the reason I share that story with people is because I want to share, you know, there’s nothing special about me. I’m just someone who had a big dream and decided to chase it and brought it into reality.

And I wanna empower people that even your craziest, most unimaginable things can come true if you believe it, and take inspired and aligned actions to move you closer to the things that you want. 

Emily: And I think that a lot of people would, if they were in the similar situation to you where perhaps life wasn’t quite where you wanted it to be and maybe you weren’t making the money, you, you knew that you could be, that they wouldn’t go and think well, [00:12:00] I’m going to have an amazing waterfront house and I’m going to now go and look at the schools to imagine what my son’s education might look like there, and I’m gonna go sit in the cafe and really get in the head space of being a local in this community and figuring out where I want to live.

What is that difference there do you think, Clare? Is it who you are or is it a mindset that you have? What’s that difference there between I guess, people that are like well, this is like the luck I’ve been handed. This is what my life is gonna look like versus you maybe didn’t have the perfect life, but you knew that that wasn’t a reflection of where you could be.

Clare: And it’s totally down to mindset. This is a learned skill. So if you think I wouldn’t even do that, that’s ridiculous. That’s exactly where I was like 10 years ago. My life looked so completely different to what it looks like now. And I didn’t even know what mindset was. I didn’t even know what money mindset was.

And it’s through this work, through learning these skills, through actually educating myself and, and thinking. What have I got to lose? Like when I first got started in this [00:13:00] journey and I thought as if thinking positive things is going to make things happen for me, as if going, what’s the point in walking through a house that I’m never gonna be able to afford?

And then I, I just thought, what if I allowed myself to think maybe it does. Like what’s the worst that can happen? The worst that can happen is that I stay where I am, which is where I’m gonna stay anyway. So I just leant into the work and I went all in on it, and it’s just been incredible how my life has changed and continuing to evolve, and I guess that’s the thing that I wanna remind people is that even no matter where you are now, you can start to change your mindset and you can start to create these things and then your success also inspires other people.

Because I definitely know, like for example, my hairdresser, she used to have this smirk on her face every week. She’d go, oh, how’s buying the house at the Gold Coast going? And I’d be like, it’s gonna happen. And I’m like, yeah, we’re still working through. And she’s like, so will the banks [00:14:00] even lend your money?

And I’m like, not yet. But they will. And I know that she must see me now on socials and think, oh my gosh, maybe this stuff works. And maybe it excites and empowers her to get out there and start to change her life because she goes, well, , she did it. So if she can do it, I can do it. And that’s the other thing that’s really cool when you start to create success, amazing changes in your life is that there’s actually beautiful ripples of positivity that go out to other people and inspire them to chase their dreams, to do things differently, and hopefully to do the money mindset work. 

Emily: And, um, I just, appreciate and think it’s so wonderful how you share so much how you share, I love looking at your Instagram stories and you’re out on the boat and you’re sailing, you’re jetting along the water on your, like out the front of your riverfront, um, waterfront home and looking at other amazing houses. And I think just showing that, yeah, you can do this. And we’re [00:15:00] surrounded often by people that perhaps don’t have that same, idea of what’s possible. And that can have a more negative or fixed mindset. And so for you to be that example of what is possible and then to share it so openly and generously and with, uh, humor and all that type of thing just gives other people, hang on a minute.

I thought there’s something that. Perhaps is possible for me, I think that I’ve got something to offer here. I, I do have these dreams. Well, Clare’s showing me that this is totally valid. I’m not weird even if people around me don’t believe in what I have to offer. And, um, it’s just an example of what’s possible. It’s so awesome, Clare. 

And I love to, because I find a lot of people online are already at the destination. And they are like, you know, here’s me living in my mansion and I’m, I’m showing people, I’ve been doing this since years ago, like five years ago when I first started my journey. And I was saying like, look at me failing.

Look at how this, you know, isn’t [00:16:00] coming together. Look, I live in a little shack and I’m, I’m, you know, I’m being really transparent. We’re in this tiny little house. And I wanna show people this is the journey. And then when I get there, people are like, oh my gosh, I remember when you first moved there.

And I remember, and, and this is the thing, I wanna bring people on the journey, not just when I’m there, but actually like, hey, this is happening, this is how I’m doing it. This is the processes that I’m putting in place and then, you know, showing people, Hey, you can change your life. I’m showing you as I’m doing it myself.

what do you say to people that aren’t really sure what it is that they want? Do you ever have clients that you ask and they’re like, oh, I actually don’t know. I don’t know where it is that I want to live. I don’t know what the dream looks like for me. Do you find that with your clients? 

Clare: A hundred percent. I would say that like 90, 95% of people that I deal with don’t know what they want. I have to admit, I go through phases where I kind of lose a bit of like, do I actually want, you know, particularly when you get to a goal, you get there and then you’re what do I want next? [00:17:00] A nd the great thing about our goals and our aspirations too is that they do get to change over time. I’m sure you’ve experienced this yourself, Emily. 

Emily: Oh, like, yeah. When I said, you have clients that deal with this, basically I’m like, this is me. Sometimes I’m like, well, what is this 

Clare: A hundred percent. 

Emily: And someone actually asked me the other day, I was out at a lunch and sitting next to, um, someone that I know and she said, oh, like what’s the, because I was, I always ask people like, what’s your next goal? What are you working on? And she asked me and I’m like, oh, well, like, pretty much what I have, but a bigger version. And next week she’s like, oh. So like pretty much. Yeah, what you have, but maybe a little bit bigger. And I’m like, crap, that’s not that exci, that’s not that like, oh, I need to think bigger, I think around what’s next for me.

But I also said to you, I think before we hit record, I feel like I’m full-time mumming right now and I’m ready to get back some time and get back into the business and have that time and space to dream and vision and make plans and everything as well. But, um, yeah, I’m just curious, what, what do you suggest in terms of when people are like, oh, what is it that I want?

Clare: So, a couple of things. Firstly, I think a lot of [00:18:00] people are never intentional with this process. They go through life and, you know, when I’m obviously a money mentor, I help people make money. And so they say, I wanna make a million dollars a year. And I’m like, yeah, why? Because I, well, what do what? Uh, uh, and I’m like, what does life look like?

What does success look like to you? And helping people unpick why they think that the money is gonna change their life. Like, what, what is it, do you wanna move houses? Do you want to have more time with your kids? really getting crystal clear about exactly what you want. And the best way to do that is to actually carve out time.

Rather than just kind of on the fly, like, oh yeah, I want a new house. It’s like, what do you want? Like carve out time where you actually just sit down and just allow yourself to dream and to play. And the second part of that, which is really important as well, is that a lot of people won’t allow themselves to desire things because they don’t think it’s possible for them.

And what that means is that, for example, if you don’t say, I wanna have a house by the water well, [00:19:00] how’s your subconscious mind even gonna allow you to start to create that if you can’t even let yourself believe it’s possible for you? 

Emily: That’s, that’s something I see a lot, Claire too. Um, what do you think that comes back to in terms of when I ask my clients what their goals are, how much they want to make, all that type of thing? Sometimes I’m like, come on, you can totally have more and do more than this. And is that really what you want? I don’t know, like, oh, well 60 grand a year would be great if I could just make that, amazing. But what if even more was possible? 

Clare: Yeah. It’s just this, it’s all of our money stories that we have accumulated over our life. And I know for me, I grew up in a family that didn’t have a ton of money, so I didn’t even think it was possible to make huge money from running your own business. You know, what makes me think that I deserve to make more money than other people?

You know, there’s all these levels of programming that have come through our life and the stories that we’ve been told from [00:20:00] our family, from our peers. And they start to become our stories. Because we hear them and then that’s what we start make our reality. And um, I was chatting to a A V I P client of mine this week about this, and I said, I am so surrounded by people that now fly business class that go overseas multiple times a year.

That talk about creating the next level of wealth., that it’s so normalised to me now. That you know, when I, when I talk like this people and they kind of look at me with big wide dinner plates, I’m like, but this is my new normal now. I’ve allowed myself to think I wanna be a wealthy woman and starting to build a life intentionally with that in mind.

Whereas before, I wouldn’t have even let myself think that I deserve these things. You know, I can go on overseas holidays, that I can fly business class, that I can be building a waterfront home. I allow myself to say it’s possible and it’s not that I think that I’m any better than anyone else.

 [00:21:00] In fact, my work is saying exactly the opposite. It’s like, anyone can do this. If you have the mindset and you start taking actions, you can start to create your most amazing life. So it’s just letting yourself think , what could I have? Like, if there’s no limit, what would be possible?

Emily: Yeah. Yeah. It’s great advice. And, um, I love in the book, Clare, that you break down the traditional version of what profit is from the accounting background that you have, and then what you’ve defined as intentional profit, could you give a little overview of what that looks like and then what intentional profit’s all about?

Clare: Yeah, for sure. So my accounting background, we learned about profit. And profit is basically your sales minus your expenses, which gives you your profit. So when I was operating as an accountant, I, if I was wanting to help someone grow their profit, most of the time I was like, let’s cut your expenses. Less expenses means more profit. And I guess what I learned in my [00:22:00] early days of business, I was a very conservative accountant type thinker. I was all about keeping my costs low, my margins high. And then what I saw was that a couple of my peers were shooting ahead of me talking about their six figure launches and building their million dollar business.

And I was like, whoa, I’m making like, 5, 10 grand a month here. Yeah. What are they doing? And I recognise that they were investing in their business, they were joining masterminds, hiring coaches. You know, creating beautiful websites, investing in their brand. And I realised I can either stay where I am and keep repeating the same thing, and as we know, doing the same thing gets you the same outcomes. Or I can say, I can do things differently. I can start to invest in my business and then have a plan that that will lead me to longer term growth. Now, this was really uncomfortable for me because particularly in the short term, a lot of times that means we go backwards.

Like our profit goes [00:23:00] backwards sometimes. It might even mean you’re running at a loss. However, If you do this with intention, with a plan, then ultimately you will grow your long-term profit because even though your short-term profit might be reduced a bit, it helps you to grow your profit in the long term.

Emily: I’m so aligned with this, Clare, and I think you probably know that about me. Like I am someone that likes to invest strategically in my business, and I definitely take that longer term approach, which I think it’s all about with the intentional profit. It’s like, okay, I’m going to somewhat sacrifice the profit right now so that I can take that money, put it into something that I hypothesise will pay off down the track. And maybe that’s in next month. Maybe that’s in a few months from now. Maybe that’s over the next coming years, but I’m willing to, um, to risk that with that longer term vision of the bigger vision of what I want my business to be. 

Clare: Yeah, 100%. [00:24:00] And I mean, this book has been a classic example of that. I have invested so much money in this book and this is what intentional profit’s about. It’s not just like, oh geez, I hope that makes me, I came into this saying, okay, if I’m gonna put that much money in, here’s what I anticipate. It will deliver me this many extra clients.

I need to sell this many of my courses to recover the cost of the book. . This is what my forecast estimate that this will deliver back into my business long term. So that to me is what it’s about. Yes, it’s about leaning in investing, but it’s also about saying, what’s the upside? How much more could I be making if I do lean in?

Emily: Absolutely. What’s your advice for someone that can now listening, they’re like, yep, that does make sense, and I can see how that would play out. What’s your advice to them when they are feeling perhaps that fear of doing that for the first time when they’ve never perhaps taken some of that profit out and invested it into something that they really want to do? Whether it’s a mastermind, a program, um, [00:25:00] new branding or doing a book, whatever it might look like. What do you say to them? Cause I’m sure you have this conversation with your clients a lot, perhaps. 

Clare: Absolutely. Yeah, I sure do. Look there’s no guarantees when you lean into an investment. And I think that this is the thing that people have to recognize. There are no guarantees. When I go and hire a really expensive business coach, I am not guaranteed that my business will grow as a result. When I publish a book, there’s no guarantees that it will make me a lot more profit in my business, however, when you are making investments with intention and when you have that sense of self faith, like any time that I fail, I learn a lesson.

And for me, this is how I’m able to frame my failures is because they’re always me learning. Take me back to seven years ago when I first started my business, if I stayed where I was then and I kept doing what I was doing. Pretty reliably I could have kept having, you know, quite a [00:26:00] comfortable profit margin and I could have ticked along for the rest of my life. But I knew that to create different outcomes in my life, I had to do things differently. Now, I have had a ton of failures along my business journey already. I know there’ll be more to come, and I’ve had a ton of investments that were complete disasters. . But every time something happens like that, I learn a lesson and I go, right, what am I gonna do with this?

How am I gonna frame this differently? What can I learn off the back of it? What’s the intention that I can create around this? And I just reframe it, accept that failing is part of success and continue to move through. And this, I think, is another pivotal mindset lesson for all business owners to learn.

I can’t guarantee your success. Investing does not guarantee your success. However, not investing pretty much, you know, if you keep doing the same thing, you’re likely to keep getting the same outcome. So for me it’s always like, well, yes, there’s no guarantees, but I’m willing to go through that [00:27:00] fear, that discomfort, because what’s on the other side is potentially even bigger and better.

Emily: So well said, Clare. It’s totally true what you said around how we react to those failures or to those investments that didn’t pay off. And whether we see that as, I think us being a failure, I can’t do this, we get into this spiral, we go down and down and often I see with my clients, if they have a, like a little bit of a slow period, I’m like, okay, what actions are you still taking? And I know that once we have those, um, blips that or those things that don’t go to plan sometimes then we can stop doing the things that were actually working cuz we start getting in our own head. And then things like naturally then don’t go as well.

Like, we stop showing up, we stop, um, sending those weekly emails out. We stop doing all of those things. And um, it’s really important to catch ourselves. And I say to my clients as well, in a similar way, I think it’s like that first launch that you do, or that single launch event that you do is no indication of your future launches.

 It’s really not. [00:28:00] And you just take all the learnings from it and go again. And I think as well, you wrote about this in your book, intentional Profit as well, Clare, in terms of, um, businesses don’t necessarily just keep going up and up and up and up. Can you talk a little bit more about that?

Clare: Yeah. I think that’s one of the biggest myths that’s out there, because people, if they have a slow month, a slow year, they’re like, oh my gosh, it’s all over. Doom and gloom. it’s a normal business cycle for businesses to go up and down. I’ve worked for some massive organisations that go backwards for a month, a quarter, a year, a couple of years, and I think that it’s ultimately just normal to not have like growth on growth on growth.

And sometimes we’re gonna stagnate, sometimes we might even go backwards, but it’s like, well, what are you doing about it? Are you then like, oh, well it’s all over. Let’s shut the business down. Or do you look at it and say, I’m gonna take the lesson, I’m gonna look at this objectively and I’m gonna make some decisions to shift my business forward.

Emily: And it can feel like me speaking from personal experience, right [00:29:00] now I’m on semi maternity leave, and so business looks a little bit different and it’s ticking over, but it’s in by no means kind of growing and growing right now. But just like you wrote about, in your book, it’s like, that’s intentional by me.

I’m a little bit more hands off right now. Things are ticking over. Yes. I’d love to keep growing and growing and growing. And I said to my OBM, I’m like, oh, Kat, like I just wanna get in there. And she’s like, Emily, it’s totally fine. It’s all good over here. Like things are, things are ticking along. Don’t forget, like you , you’ve got your baby at home and you’re with him. And I think it’s just accepting and knowing that, and knowing and being accepting of that, I think, and knowing that there’s those different periods and times in your business and knowing that just having a time where things are a little bit more cruisy or look a bit different, because that’s what you need right now as a business owner is totally fine. Um, but yeah, I thought that was great how you addressed that in your book, Clare, in terms of you know, sometimes business is gonna look a bit more stagnant. Sometimes business is gonna go down. It doesn’t mean that your business is over. It doesn’t mean that there’s something [00:30:00] wrong with you.

Sometimes these are strategic things as well where you do make those investments and you take out a chunk of that profit to make a big investment in something else that you want to do. And it’s all done strategically and intentionally and, um, and knowing what that greater vision is for the business too.

Clare: And it’s funny how sometimes we can look at other people with such kindness and not our own selves. I went through a similar thing. I was in a really serious car accident last year, and my business, obviously as a result was you know, stagnating going backwards and I kept beating myself up. I was recovering from a really major accident and wondering why my business wasn’t skyrocketing at the time. And for me to look at you, I’m like, oh, for goodness sakes. You know, you just had a baby. Like, that’s a full-time job. But yeah, sometimes we, we aren’t as kind to ourselves as, we should be, but making a plan, being intentional about it. And if you don’t like where you are, then going, cool, where do I wanna be? And what do I need to do to get there? 

Emily: And we [00:31:00] were just saying off air just before, um, I’m like, yep, cool. For me, that’s probably gonna look like daycare so that I can get some of that focus time to do the big thinking and do the awesome things I wanna be doing on my business. And that’s the next step for me because I realised I could be here and make no change and be resentful. But what is that future version of myself that I see who, who is that? Like who am I when I’m at that next point in my business where I wanna be and what decisions did she make to get there? And it’s like, no, it’s not being resentful, it’s not being a bit of a victim of the circumstances. It’s like, what changes can I make and let’s go ahead and do them. So that’s what we’re gonna do. . I’d love to ask you, Clare, what are some of those own money mindset challenges that you, that are maybe patterns for you? Are there some that k ind of pop up. You’re like, oh, there it is again. There’s that mindset that I have. What do they look like for you? 

Clare: This is one of the things about the money mindset work, right? It always is there. So you break through one story and then the next one pops up. So in my early days of [00:32:00] business there, maybe I need to share this with the listeners. There are three types of blocks, you know, that I talk about. One is a block in holding like a, you know, you feel scared to actually hang onto any money. So you’re so used to spending that if there’s the tiniest bit of savings there, you get rid of it quickly. The next one is a block in receiving.

 So this can show up that you end up working for free for people. You don’t charge for your time. All of those things. And then the third one is a block in investing. And this is where you are scared to spend any money. And you know, that might be in your business or even in your life. You could just think, oh, I won’t spend anything.

So all three of those are underpinned by certain fears, by certain stories, by our past. And for me, in my early days of business, I had a massive fear of investing in my business. I just wanted to hold on as much money as possible. I was terrified to spend any money Ironically, that was something that in my earlier life I was exactly the same.

I never, you know, my [00:33:00] first job I remember I used to earn like 34 dollars and 20 cents or something, and I’d get 80 cents off my parents and bank the 35 dollars. I was so frugal. And then I swung the complete opposite way, which was then just like, oh my gosh. Like, you know, let’s get out, let’s live. And with my business, when I first started investing, I went nuts. Like I was just like, spend, spend, spend, spend, spend. And then I go, whoa, I’ve swung too far the other way now. And so for me, I’m finding that my money stories, the way that I am with money, it keeps changing, and I have to keep coming back and going, why am I doing this? 

Why are these patterns repeating? And what can I do to change them? So this is why the money mindset work is so important, because unless you recognise your behaviours, you can’t change them. And you’re gonna keep making the same mistakes again and again. 

Emily: What are some of the strategies perhaps, that you have, that you’ve implemented in your life to help with your money mindset, things [00:34:00] that pop up?

Clare: So one of the things I talk about in the book is baby steps. And that is that if the thing that you want feels insurmountable, j ust start small. So an example could be, let’s just say that you are wanting to, you know, get more into your business again, rather than go, okay, from next week, my son’s going into childcare from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM every day for five days a week, that might feel so crazy and massive, but you could start by saying… 

Emily: It does. No way. 

Clare: But you could start by saying, okay, well let’s try one or two days a week, you know if, you are wanting to, like for me, when I had that big block in holding, I just started putting 20 dollars a week into a savings account. And I’m like, I will never touch that. And then I’ve increased it and increased it over time. Um, with my charity, like with my giving I wanted to, you know, I wanted to be setting up big charities in Africa and helping starving children and just becomes this crazy, how am I ever gonna get there?

 And so I’m like, okay, [00:35:00] well I can start just by putting a small amount. So I’ve set up my direct debits that every single week, money just comes outta my account. And I’m like, it’s not huge amounts of money at this point in time, but it’s consistent, and it grows. And I get to say, okay, cool. Now I’ve got a little bit more bandwidth to give a bit more. Okay. Let’s increase that amount. And so, Baby steps would be my recommendation. If you’re wanting to shift from where you are, like think of if the thing’s too big, what’s a step forward that you can take? And I’ll just share one last example. Sorry, I get so excited about this stuff.

Emily: It’s the best.

Clare: But you know, like for example, with the house, like building the dream house, for us, so we have actually gone and met with a building designer and he gave us a price and I j ust about died. Um, I was like, okay, that might be a little further away than we thought, but what we’re gonna do, we’re actually gonna pay him to go and design the house. And even though we can’t afford the house, we can’t afford the building design. And then it’s like, it’s one step forward. And then from there we could [00:36:00] maybe go, you know, one of the things that we spoke about, maybe we could put the swimming pool in. And so once we’ve got the design done, we can, you know, all, and then that becomes like a much smaller amount and we’re like, okay, maybe we can’t get that big amount yet, but you know what, we can actually afford the swimming pool.

So let’s go and put the pool in. Then maybe we could do, you know, the landscaping wall, the boathouse. You know, we can start to do it bit by bit and it won’t feel like such a big, crazy goal. So that’s a little tip that I’ve got. If you don’t even know where to get started, is, it’s like, just start small. Just start small. 

Emily: And this is the thing Clare, about not waiting. And you talk about as well in the book around it’s like when then, so when I’m earning this, then I’ll do that. And it reminded me of that donation part as well. People often say, oh, when I’m making millions, then I’ll donate. Whereas we like, I’m the same as you just a bit every month to the charities that I really want to support and whether that’s right or wrong or whether that’s what other people want to do, but it’s looking at, okay, I might not be able to, you might not be able to get the whole house built right now. But doesn’t mean you have to say, well, there’s no point doing anything. It’s like, [00:37:00] right, I don’t have to wait. I can start doing some things now with the resources that I have to actually get me closer to where it is I want to be. And now you’ve taken that first step towards getting well many steps toward now with the building design, you’re like, okay, well now I’ve got an idea of what that might cost and I love, you’re gonna get it designed.

Then you can start like, in your mind like living in that house and stepping it out, and you’d probably be like, oh, now that I’ve, now that I’ve seen that plan and kind of visioned it, that’s not wide enough for the kitchen island bench to be, it needs to be further, further away from the cooktop or whatever it might look like, or thinking about waking up in the mornings and sitting there overlooking the water.

Actually, what would be awesome is to have my coffee machine set up on that bench. So let’s design it this way. Um, and imagine like having the pool built and then all of these things, I think build that momentum for ourselves and just keep proving to us that it is possible step by step. I love it.

Clare, is there anything that I haven’t asked you that you would love to share as we get towards wrapping up this chat? 

Clare: Look, there’s just two big things that I would say, you know, if you are [00:38:00] listening to this podcast and you’re like, where do I even begin this, this journey? I would say learn to get right across your business finances. Because I think a lot of people think if I ignore them and I don’t look at them, it’ll go away. It doesn’t work like that. 

Emily: I used to be like that for sure. Absolutely. 

So I’d really empower everyone, like go and learn about finances, grab a copy of the book, talk to your accountant, like get right across your business finances. And the second thing is I urge everyone do the money mindset work. You know, whether it’s, it’s through reading the book, or doing a course. But once you start this journey, you’ll start to recognise your patterns and behaviours. And when you do that, that is the first step in changing how you do things and in turn, changing your life. So two big things that I would recommend, no matter what stage of business you’re at, money mindset, and loan to manage your money. 

It’s so great Clare.. And I think as well with that money mindset work, it allows you to also recognise in other people some of the stories that they [00:39:00] have and hold onto and we can realise, well actually that’s just what they believe but that’s not true. It doesn’t make sense for me. I don’t believe that. And it allows us to almost free ourselves from other people’s thoughts about money, um, when they can be so prevalent and so strong around us in our lives to, um, to take those steps towards what it is that we really want. So, amazing.

 Clare, thank you so much. And I just wanna say the biggest congratulations to you, uh, for publishing your first book. Perhaps there’ll be more in the future. What, what is the next thing that you are working on, Clare? What, what can we expect from you? What’s yours next? What’s big next?

Clare: So, a couple of things that are in the pipeline for me. One is that I really want to expand my business globally again. A couple of years ago, most of my clients were overseas, and then the last couple of years it’s kind of become quite an Australian based business. So I’m off to the state on Tuesday, I’m gonna go and start building some more overseas connections.

Emily: Wow, so Good. 

Clare: Yeah, it’s exciting. I’m speaking at a retreat[00:40:00] in Mexico later this year, and so international expansion is, is a biggie for me. There is absolutely another book. It kills me to even say this because I’ve just gone through the pain of, you know, it really is like having a, having a child. You forget all the pain and you wanna go do it again. But I definitely have another book that I’m really excited to write and to get out there and really just scaling the scalable side of my business. I have two courses inside, It’s called The Profit Academy. And I really just want to build foundations around the academy to be welcoming people in growing that and helping more people to get right across their money. So those are my big goals for now. 

Emily: So good, Clare and Mexico. What? So fun. 

Clare: Yeah. Super excited about that. And it’s, it’s crazy, but all these things, they’re on my vision board. You know, international speaking, um, becoming a bestselling author. That was literally on my vision board and it’s like, I just put it out there and I said, this is happening, and [00:41:00] then bringing it into reality. So, you know, there’s a lot of power in doing this money mindset work. 

Emily: I adore chatting with you. I love our conversations. I love that you are such a vibrant example of thinking big and knowing like anything’s possible. So what is it that you want? And let’s go do it. So, congrats, Clare, on your first book. What a success. It’s been a huge success already, topping different charts, and, um, I’m so excited just to keep watching and, and being involved and seeing just all the amazing things that you create. So thank you so much for being. here 

Clare: Pleasure. Thanks for having me, Emily. [00:42:00]