Many people throw away money when they do not know when coming from a place of fear. April Shprintz is here to discuss how to overcoming this destructive habit and deal with your biggest fears, both personal and professional, in a more straightforward way.
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Are You Throwing Money Away?
I am so glad you’re here. Someone asked me, “April, what do you see people waste the most money on?” I don’t think they were ready for my answer. I said, “People waste the most money on fear.” I see people throw away so much damn money on what they’re afraid of. Now, that may sound weird but let me walk you through it.
Fears In Business
For entrepreneurs, here’s what I see people waste money on. PS, I’m people, too. I have wasted money on all of these things. One, masterminds or networking. They want to grow their business. They’re afraid they can’t and afraid to sell. They want to go pay to be a part of a group where they think someone can teach them how to do it or they can be in a room with people that they think by osmosis will rub off on them.
I’m sensing bad all on its own. It’s not a thing where it’s like, “I don’t believe in masterminds and networking.” Don’t believe in doing them when you’re afraid and you’re throwing money at your fear. What does that mean, throwing money at your fear? It means I’m afraid of doing this thing. I’m going to buy something that’s going to fix it for me. You are always part of that equation of fixing it. I can’t tell you how many companies I’ve gone into to turn around and they’re like, “This area isn’t a problem because we bought blank, new equipment and new software.”
I love it when folks who have no processes and no good project management skills within the company are like, “We just got a sauna. We’re going to be fine.” These are all tools that you use and leverage but you’ve got to solve the problem first. I also see a lot of entrepreneurs and big businesses. PR and marketing are afraid to sell. They don’t have good product market fit, don’t understand who your customers are, and don’t know how to talk to them. Let’s just hire a PR firm or do a whole bunch of marketing. Do what they call back in the day, spray and pray. Don’t target it. Put it out at everyone and hope somebody wants to come and do business with us.
Fears In Personal Life
These are all things where you were throwing money at fear. You don’t understand the problem and you don’t know how to fix it. This happens in our personal life, too. Folks who want to go and get the new diet craze, the new diet pill. They’re doing that from a place of fear. “I don’t want to be fat.” “I don’t want to be out of shape.” Maybe they’re going and getting more and more education, more certificates, and more degrees because they want to qualify for a promotion that they probably are already qualified for but their fear is, “If I don’t have all these credentials someone’s going to reject me.”
They’re looking for more and more from that place of fear. What about this one, maybe you have a fear of dealing with things that are going on at home. You’re going to start a brand-new hobby. You’re going to get away from the house and you’re not going to be there very much. Instead of doing the hobby because you’re not doing it from a place of joy or from a place of, “I want to do that.” You’re just buying tons of equipment before you ever start. Whether that fear that you’re moving away from is not wanting to deal with your primary relationship or maybe that fear is, “I’m not going to be any good at this hobby.”
I’m going to tell you, every single one of these I’ve experienced it some time and some point. Not just my clients and friends. Me too. I can tell you, I bought a whole lot of golfing stuff. When I say a whole lot, the wardrobe and the equipment. The everything. Before I ever even started taking lessons then I realized that my real fear was that I wasn’t going to take time for myself. Candidly, I did not have time at that point in my life. I had just started a business.
When we are going towards something instead of running away from it, which we’re always doing when we're doing it from a place of fear, we get further. Share on XI did not have time to dedicate to something like golf but my fear was that I was going to get lost in my business. Anytime that you find yourself throwing money at some area. It is probably being motivated by fear. If you can figure out what that fear is, not only can you address it. Whatever investment you do choose to make in yourself, your business, and your life is much more worthwhile. You’re also going to be so much more successful. When we are going towards something instead of running away from something, which we’re always doing when we’re doing it from a place of fear.
We get further. We have more fun. It happens faster. Ask yourself, the next time you’re looking to put money towards something, “Am I running towards something that I want? Am I running away from something I’m afraid of?” That way, you’ll prevent yourself from throwing money away. Here’s to your success.
