Abundance is a very hot topic these days, and a lot of people are leveraging abundance appropriately. However, there are also many people leveraging abundance a little manipulatively. In this episode, host Paul Blanchard talks about the karma of abundance and addresses some of the major challenges that people have when they become entrepreneurs, especially around identifying a worthy investment. If you are looking for more abundance in your life and to increase your sales, and to quit running into the same objections over and over again, you don’t want to miss today’s show.
It is power session time here with Habit Finder. I’m excited to be with all of you. We’re going to be diving into a realm that many of you who have been following me for a while know that I love. It’s a realm the dives into sales and connection. We’re going to talk a little bit about karma and reciprocation. We’re going to talk about abundance. It’s a hot topic these days and a lot of people are leveraging abundance appropriately. There are a lot of people leveraging abundance a little manipulatively. We want to talk about this stuff to give us an opportunity to understand where we’re headed, why we’re headed there, and what investments should we be making to get there.
You may be thinking to yourself that this is a little bit of a compromised topic because I would love nothing more than for all of you to invest in yourselves with us. However, I want to come from a 30,000-foot view advisory position to say that this is the criteria I use when considering investments for myself. This is the way I approach selling and investing so they can balance each other out to give you an opportunity to be able to make that call. If that criteria fits for you because it’s not the criteria that automatically qualifies you to work with Habit Finder. That would be a little manipulative and biased of me. I want to give you criteria to search within yourself. If the framework is there and we’re a great fit, awesome. I’d love for you to invest. If it’s not, then don’t.
We’re not going anywhere. We’ve been here for a long time. This is not a power session to make sure we end with as many of you investing with us as possible because many of you already have. I hope those of you that have invested with us have expanded those investments because of the progression that you’re creating. If you haven’t, then some of the things we’ll talk about now will allow you to step back and retrench that reciprocation and that abundance that we talk about here many times. Let’s go ahead and get this thing started.
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The Karma Of Abundance
We are talking about the karma of abundance and the karma of sales. We’re going to address some of the major challenges that people have when they become entrepreneurs, when a lot of their life is about selling their products or their ideas or their intentions to other people and getting them to buy in whether financially, emotionally or physically. We want to talk about that reciprocation. We want to talk about that karma. That’s what karma is. It’s a reciprocation. What you put out there is what you get back. It’s what Og Mandino talks about in Scroll IV. If I show up in the marketplace with these things, that’s what I’m going to experience from others.
We want to taproot to some of that. We want to talk about that in particular because a lot of the frustrations, challenges and objections that we run into with other people, if you look closely, you’ll more often not find that they are your objections, concerns and hesitancies. That’s one thing that I love about sales. It’s this mirror that you can’t hide stuff from. It allows you to see stuff that you hide under good intentions and reasonable justifications. The feedback you get from someone else you’re trying to sell will teach you so much about your integrity and your real intentions. It’ll teach you about your habits and that dialogue you’ve got going on in the back of your head.
Everybody Sells
We all sell. If any of you are looking to sign off and you’re like, “I’m not in sales.” Everybody is. You may have a particular or a prejudice view or a tunnel vision idea of what sales is. If you’ve got anyone out there that you know are looking for more abundance in their life, looking to increase their sales, looking to quit running into the same objections over and over again, please tag them and share this. This is exactly what they’re going to want to hear. It’s going to be some hard truths.
We’re going to be looking in that mirror now. I want to magnify it. I want to expand it so you can see what’s going on and what’s the stuff that many of us are trying to workaround. Other than that, how do I make more money? Other than that, how do I find the right people? We want to make sure we’re not buying into “other than that” mentality that keeps us stuck in the revolving door of mediocrity, frustration, anger, quit, obligation and everything else. We want to break free of that.
The fact of the matter is we’ve got to be more accountable to ourselves in how we are wielding abundance and this balance between buying things, investing in ourselves, selling things and trying to inspire others to invest in them. It’s difficult to try to teach abundance when we are not abundant in our own private lives. It’s difficult to sell abundance when we don’t buy abundantly. However, that can be a slippery slope. Don’t get me wrong.
I completely understand that every great thing can be used in a bad way. Those are some of the favorite things to use in a bad way. It’s the good things because then you’ve got people going, “They’re trying to help me. They’re trying to serve her. That makes sense.” It was all to get you to buy a ketchup popsicle with white gloves on, sell ice to Eskimos, and all that other crap that is manipulative and disruptive game to your psychology because you’ve got thousands of people out there studying the way your brain works and know how it works better than you.
They know what buttons to push that you don’t even realize they’re pushing. I want to be sure, be sensitive and be careful that I am not pushing a button here just to get you to buy stuff from me. I want to be cognizant about that. I want to be open about that. If no one invests in Habit Finder from this particular habit power session, I’m fine with it because you need to hear this stuff. Some of you need to get called out for you trying to rob Peter to pay Paul in terms of abundance.
The Basic Principle Of Abundance
Some of you need to get reeled-in because you’re buying everything that sounds like it’s going to be the next thing to help you breakthrough. You need to stop doing that because eventually, you’re going to end up broken and angry if you’re not already. I want to make sure we’re sensitive to those populations. I want to give you a chance to be able to understand this a little bit deeper. First of all, it’s the basic principle of reciprocity. The basic principle of abundance itself.
Abundance is an excess to be able to share. If you’re out there trying to sell something to someone, I want you to take a minute and think of the last thing someone tried to sell to you, the last thing that was sold to you or you were talked into or that you considered buying. I want you to think about the last few interactions. The last person that knocked on your door to try and talk you into something. The last telemarketer that got some creative way to get through to you by spoofing a number that’s the same area code as you, even though they’re probably in India or the Philippines or something.
I want you to think about your interaction. I want you to think about your disdain for someone offering you something or any other feelings you might have. Maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe when someone has something to offer you that’s through the roof like, “It’s great.” That’s me when I’m home and people knock on our door to sell something, I kicked back the recliner. I give them the stage and I want to see what they can do. The last person I did that with at the end of last season impressed me, so I swapped pest control companies.
I loved our pest control company. It was fantastic. They were great. They didn’t do anything wrong. This kid showed up and did all the right things. He showed up authentically and genuine with hard work and perseverance. He wasn’t like the cable company people who kept coming back over and over again hounding my wife and whatever else. He was casual and comfortable so it caught my attention. I gave him the stage and it was awesome.
Think Abundantly
I love to be abundant like that. I love to think about the server I’ve got and not think of, “Did they serve me exactly the way I would want to be served?” I wonder what’s going on in their world, what’s their experience, how new they are, and what it would mean to them to get a significant tip. Those kinds of things are tapping into abundance. That’s not, “Look at Paul. He’s so abundant.” There are areas of my life where I still have plenty of work. There are areas of my life where I need to reel in like the abundance of eating. I eat way too abundantly.
There are areas where we’re constantly calibrating our abundance. We’re constantly calibrating when we buy and when we sell in our life. It’s not like stocks. There are certain elements to the market of when we buy into us, invest in ourselves and when we sell, there requires a balance. You can’t sell stocks that you haven’t invested in unless you’re a broker where you get to stand back and play the game and make money on fees. When you’re in the market, I can’t sell you stocks that I don’t know. I can’t sell you a piece of real estate that I don’t own. There are professional brokers that do that, but I mean it in and of myself.
If I’m going to sell you abundance, whether that’s in changing your health, being able to build a home business, being able to start up a storefront, build a new brand, be able to improve your relationship, whatever it is, if I haven’t invested in stock in that, I can’t sell you stock in that. I can’t have an authentic conversation about that. That doesn’t mean that you need to go out and spend. I don’t hire a $10,000 coach every month so I could sell my coaching to other people for that, but I invest in coaching in myself.
Two Most Common Objections
It’s about finding that reciprocity, finding those phases, finding those elements, and exploring those things. We want to find a balance there. Take some time now to think about, what are the objections I run into. For example, one of the most common, “I can’t afford it. I don’t have the money.” The two most common, “I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money.” Neither of which is about the time or the money. We know that, but how many of you that get time and money objections leverage time and money objections for other things with your spouse, with the person who knocked on your door, with the upgrades for the event you went to or whatever it was?
How are you going to handle presence and gifts for a birthday or a celebration? Where are you going to go on vacation? Do you show up with abundance? I’m not saying recklessness. I’m not saying that if you’re having a tough time paying your bills that you should go out and blow all the money in your savings account, but there should be a balance. There should be a ratio of sacrifice that we want to consider. Spend some time with that.
That alone can teach you a lot about why you’re running into the obstacles that you’re running into. I work with hundreds of couples that are entrepreneurial. Either one of them is running a building or a business and the other is supporting and working a job part-time, or they’re both in it together. There are lots of different combinations. Something I found to be true is that we are almost always withholding what we wish we were getting in a relationship emotionally, spiritually and physically.
Stop Holding Back
We are almost always withholding or we’re withholding certain ways or applications of certain things that we wish we were receiving without even realizing that we’re doing it. It might be in the words we speak, in our inflection or in our facial expressions. How many of us have wanted someone to come home at the end of the day and be super pleasant and wonderful because we had such a long hard day, but our face looks unpleasant? We wonder why they don’t show up better.
We want to understand that reciprocity. It’s the same with money. It’s the same with sales and income. Many of you have such a toxic relationship with money. If money was a real person, they’d be super offended to try and be in a relationship with you and your life. You show up to a party and you’re like, “Hey money. I know you rode with me, but can you stay over there? I like you but I don’t want people to think I’m in love with you. I don’t want people to think we’re together.”
Money is going to be offended by that and then we wonder why we don’t receive it more abundantly in our lives. We can scrimp here but they get mad at them for scrimping there. Let’s start to check in the mirror. Let’s start to explore abundance. I’m going to share this disclaimer many times. This doesn’t mean for you to go hog wild or to go crazy. I’m not saying you should start saying yes to every offer you see in your email or when people call you, and you should join every opportunity that all your friends are doing. There is discretion. There is an opportunity to be more responsible.
Two Major Obstacles To Making The Wrong Investments
If you’re running into major challenges in growing your business and your obstacles, it’s like Michael Jackson said, “Start with the person in the mirror.” Start there. That’s going to teach you a lot. You’re not going to be able to resolve them there, but you’ll learn which lessons, which obstacles, which challenges you might be disregarding. That’s the first piece. The next one are two major obstacles to making the wrong investments.
No matter how good the product is or no matter how amazing the opportunity is, if you’re going to start tapping into, and this is also going to help those of you who over-invest in yourself to pull back the reins, but if you’re going to start opening yourself up to more abundance, you’re going to go, “You’re right. I’m trying to sell coaching and I don’t have a coach. I’m trying to sell investing in yourself even when it feels like a major sacrifice, but I’m not investing in myself even when it feels like a major sacrifice.” It’s not always apples to apples.
You may be investing in the product that you’re trying to get them to invest in, but you maybe moved beyond that. That becomes a normal part of your life. What’s the next investment that’s going to stretch you and challenge you? I want you to consider two things when evaluating this before you dive into any investment no matter how good it looks. Number one, never invest in something because it’s going to make your life easier. Don’t invest if your primary driver is to make your life easier. That’s not investing in you. That’s not how it works.
If the allure or if the catch is like, “That system, that program and that seminar is going to make my life much easier,” don’t go. If you’ve already invested in it, spend some time working through that. Spend some time working through making sure you don’t go there looking for ease. It’s a major escape and you cannot be abundant and escape from life at the same time. They are antithetical. They are opposing forces. Abundance is open, out, and connective. Avoiding is isolated, justified, and rationalized. Try to sprinkle good intentions on top of it and reason and all that stuff.
Why Are You Investing?
The first thing is to be clear. Am I investing in this because I secretly hope it’s going to make my life easier? It may make your life easier. If you have to open your garage door manually and someone comes by and says, “We have this cool invention that you have to push a button and it opens your garage door for you.” That’s awesome. If you have the money to invest, that’s a fundamental make life easier piece. What I’m talking about are the strategies that someone’s going to teach you, the systems that’s going to get you organized finally, the program that’s going to finally show you how to motivate other people, whatever it is.
If you’re sitting there going, “That’s going to make my life much easier,” especially if you’re going, “That’s going to make my life easier because it’s going to take the human element out of it. It’s going to systematize everything.” That sounds sexy up front but it’s not once you get in. We are not systems. We are human beings. The first piece to you tapping into your abundance so it can be more reciprocal, so that karma can come back to you, you’re not just selling, you’re buying and investing. Don’t do it if the primary driver is it will make your life easier. That’s a dangerous road even with a good product. You could still screw it up if that’s your secret desire.
Let me give you the antithesis of that. Do invest in something if it makes your life simpler where it can help you understand the noise, to be able to compartmentalize the conversations going on up here so you can hear your true voice. If it’s going to teach you to simplify all the other stuff that you’ve been trying to use to get organized. Simple is always a worth an investment. Something that can make your life simpler is huge. That’s always a valuable investment. That’s the mentality you want to have in investing.
Simplify Your Life
Dealing with the noise that the Habit Finder can measure, not knowing how to address it, and trying to cope with it makes life complicated. One of Habit Finder’s goals is to make your life simpler. That’s what I’m talking about. We want to give you a simple assessment that takes you ten minutes or less. We want to give you a simple overview and roadmap of where the pressure points are that are supporting you or sabotaging you. We want to give you simple principles, practices and processes to apply to your business, to allow it to become simpler, to apply to your relationship for it to become simpler.
When something is simpler, it’s easier to work on. When it’s easier to work on, you work on it more often. When you work on it more often, it will get better. When it gets better, you’ll be happier and more fulfilled. Isn’t that a cool equation? Seek simple, not easy. Number two is don’t invest in something because you’re convinced it’s going to save you. “This is the saving piece. This person or this program is going to save me because I’ve been battered, bruised, and had many challenges. I finally get my break and this is it. I’m going to go to this event. I’m going to be saved in my business, in my relationship, in my bad habits.” Don’t invest in things that you have that dialogue going on that they’re going to save you.
What your brain is doing is it’s going, “I don’t have to do this. I’ll put all the onus and all the accountability on that thing.” It is perfect for your brain because it knows that it can’t do it for you. It is amazing to me how many of us understand the concept that the program can’t make you successful. The coaching can’t make you successful. That is up to you. The quality of its facilitation, however, is still important to evaluate. Even with great facilitation, if you’re going in because it’s going to make your life easier and because it’s going to save you, it doesn’t matter how good the program is, it’s not going to work for you.
It’s Human Nature
It’s the human condition. There’s nothing out there that works for everyone in terms of programs, personal development, tactics and strategies. There’s nothing out there that perfectly works for everyone. What you want to do is make sure you’re in a position to do the work because if you’ve got higher levels of accountability and responsibility, you can make just about any programs work. You get one little nugget from it because you didn’t go into it looking for it to be easier. You look for it to be simple so you look for one simple nugget. You didn’t go into it to be saved. You went into it to be challenged.
You’re on your toes curiously and excitingly looking around for that one piece you can grab onto to make it worth it. You miss that piece every time because when you go into a program to save you, all you pay attention to is what it’s not giving you and what you’re not doing, “It must be the program’s fault.” We all know that’s not true, but that’s still how we experience it. Don’t go into abundantly investing in you trying to make your life easier. Rather than that, go in and try to make your life simpler.
Nothing Will Save You
Don’t go into it thinking that this is what’s finally going to save you. Nothing will save you in this arena. You will develop you, not save you. Even if it somehow does seem to save you, your brain is going to find a way to need to be rescued again and again. Part of getting simpler and part of being challenged is to become more self-sufficient, being able to learn the principles of success and how they can be applied at each level in each progression of your life.
Those are the two primary things I want you to think about as you realize because you’re probably in one of two camps most likely. If you’re not already tapped into abundance and on the trajectory of what you want your life to be, you’re likely either going, “Why won’t people buy from me?” What are you buying? What’s the energy you bring to that process for you and your life that is spilling over and making it hard to authentically to connect with people when you want them to buy?
Maybe you’re buying too much, a total pushover. “That sounds great. I’ll buy that,” and be wary of becoming broken, angry and frustrated. That poisons the well for you being able to sell to other people. That creates desperation because you spent way too much over here. Some of you need to pull the reins back. Some of you need to push on the gas a little bit. I’ll let you figure out as you think of the energy you bring to the table when it’s time for you to invest or to buy to be able to examine that.
A Simple Formula
Lastly, this is a simple formula. I recommend this to all of my clients. Ten percent of your income should go to make an impact on this world that’s bigger than you, a charity, a nonprofit, your church, your religious organization, whatever it might be. The financial statistics on what that does to you emotionally and mentally in your financial management and your accountability, regardless of what your beliefs about tithes might be. It’s not about a religious thing. Ten percent of your income should go elsewhere to make this world a better place and make an impact on this world. Twenty to thirty percent of your income should go to investing in making you better so that you can make this world a better place.
You’ll want to take a look at that. Those are the basic principles, a range for you to look into. The 10% minimum. The 20% to 30%, you can play with. Some of you might be as high as 50%, 60%, especially if your income is supplemental early on. You’ll want to find ways to invest in you. If you’re starting a home-based business and you’ve got five small kids at home, you’re going to want to take 20%, 30%, 40% of your income and invest in a babysitter sooner than later. A nanny to be able to come help around the house, someone to clean or meal preparation or whatever it might be. The things that aren’t making you money.
It’s not to get rid of all of them. We’re not seeking easier, “It’ll be much easier if I didn’t have to take care of these kids,” but simpler. Three hours a day, giving me a chance to be with me and breathe, connect and be able to work on my business. Be an even better parent, better mother, better father or whatever it might be. That’s a great scenario. There might be technologies that you’re ready for. Most people buy them prematurely. I’ll tell you that right up front because everyone’s mystified by automation. Automation is dictated by real experience. You cannot build effective automation without real experiences. You won’t know how to automatically take someone through a journey if you haven’t manually taken them through that journey yourself. Keep in mind those two ratios.
Lastly, don’t invest in anything if the primary drivers to make life easier. Don’t invest in anything if the primary driver is it is going to save you. Challenge those thought processes because it can be a great program and you won’t get anything out of it with those two anchors. It can be an okay program. If you challenge those, you’re going to get something out of it that’s going to be worth way more than you invested in. Focus on what you are bringing to the table and what energy you are bringing to abundance both ways in what you invest in and what you sell, whether it’s ideas, income, opportunities or products.
Thank you so much for reading. I hope this was helpful. Share this out. Tag somebody in this. I worked with hundreds of thousands of people and I know a lot of people that need to hear this. If they know you, please be a mouthpiece. We appreciate that. If you haven’t already, go to HabitFinder.com and take that assessment. You get a free consult with my team to be able to learn more about the specific thought processes that are holding you back in terms of seeking an easier life and finding the next thing that’s going to save. You take care of everybody. We’ll talk to you soon.