#3 - Placebo Effect Your Money

Welcome back! Whether you realize it or not, the placebo effect is at work in your life. So let's see how we can make it work FOR us. In today's episode, Chelsea explores the placebo effect and how altering habits can lead to desired financial outcomes. Williams encourages you to identify their money beliefs and expectations, reverse engineer their financial goals, and take action to change their money story for the better. The podcast also addresses the importance of mindfulness in money management and encourages you to be intentional with your spending and prioritize your values.

Episode highlights:
1. Introduce the placebo effect and how you can use it to change your money story
2. Explains the importance of mindfulness in managing money and how it reflects in our  personal values
3. Altering habits in favor of your desired outcome 
4. Encourages you to reflect on your money story and face your financial situation head-on

Episode Links:
Socials: https://linktr.ee/the_money_whisper
Giveaway Form: https://app.lawmatics.com/forms/share/e30ba2df-99d2-4d12-bd86-e02f2cf776be
Mindvalley Podcast: https://podcast.mindvalley.com/how-marisa-peer-beat-cancer-twice-with-this-powerful-mental-technique/
Asana Rebel: https://asanarebel.com/en/
Profit First: https://www.amazon.com/Profit-First-Transform-Cash-Eating-Money-Making/dp/073521414X/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1692642314&sr=8-1

Always and Never About Money Episode Links:
Video Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@MoneyMasteryWithChelsea
Socials: https://linktr.ee/the_money_whisper
Money Mastery Website: www.moneymastery.work
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlwaysandNeverMoney/

Transcript

Welcome to Always and Never About the Money. Are you ready to embark on a journey that will forever change the way you perceive money? We'll get ready because we're about to dive deep into the fascinating world of finances and human behavior. I'm your host, Chelsea Williams and Money Whisperer. I'm here to help you realize what your money story is telling you and how you can change it. But hold on tight because this is not the dull black and white talk about money. We're gonna splash all the color into this typical nap inducing conversation on Always and Never About the Money. We're gonna explore the intricate relationship between money and our daily lives from the impact history has left on us, and how we still manage it, how your habits shape your money, and what beliefs are driving your habits, choices, and relationships to the deeper values and emotions we've come to attach to it.

We are going to unravel it all through insightful conversation and personal anecdotes. We'll bring you the expert insights, real life stories and meaningful thought provoking ideas that will inspire you, educate you, and initiate some serious perspective change when it comes to your money. Remember, money is just a tool. Together we'll untangle the web of emotions, beliefs, and values. We've come to attach to it and find a new perspective on how it can enhance our lives. So whether you're looking for motivation, practical advice, or a good laugh always and never about, the money's got you covered. Thank you for joining us in this transformative journey.

Get ready to challenge your beliefs and embark on a financial exploration like no other. Without further ado, let's kick off the episode of Always and Never About the Money.

In case you haven't realized this yet, the placebo effect is very real. It's been proven so many times and in so many ways that make it completely undeniable, and you can use it to change your money situation, but it's only a piece. The other part is altering habits in favor of your desired outcome.

Kind of like I was doing the morning, I recorded this episode, I woke up feeling motivated and determined to follow a planned morning routine, which I am working to make a habit in my own life. These are a struggle. I don't know if you've ever tried to implement a consistent morning routine and what that's like for you, but it is a struggle for me. I follow people who follow such a strict morning routine, like wake up and meditate for three minutes and then stretch for five minutes, and then eat blueberries and walnuts, and then listen to a 30 minute podcast, and then do a 30 minute exercise, and then take a cold shower. Like, you know what I'm talking. So for this, this is for me, this is kind of like the gold standard, right?

Every day solid routine, very consistent. I see a ton of value in that. So sticking to my morning routine on this day took me down a, a rabbit hole, and I just had to share it with you. Welcome back to Always and Never about the money where we're exposing how your money weave into some of the most unexpected areas of your life and in ways that you didn't even know was doing my morning routine today, which let me just admit, consistent habits are hard for me. I I talk about 'em all the time. I 100% believe in them, but consistency and structure goes against some part of my being that makes it difficult for me to commit.

And so I'll get a good morning routine, or I'll change it up. I, I kind of need variety. So it ends up being inconsistent and it still works for me and it serves me, but it kind of comes and goes in spurts, and I'm constantly looking for, you know, how can I work with who I am at my core and create a little bit more consistency. So this morning was one of those mornings where I was motivated to commit, and if I'm there, I'm gonna take it, right? So I recently purchased this app called, I may pronounce this wrong, Asana Rebel. And it is kind of like a yoga movement app, but it also incorporates meditation, daily habits, health trackers.

It's pretty, pretty cool. But it was my way of motivating myself to commit to physical movement and activity every single day, even if I can't make it to the gym. And so I got that done this morning and did a meditation in there. And then I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Mindvalley, with Vish. Ani, if you've never heard of Mindvalley and what they are doing to revolutionize the way that we learn and educate ourselves, you should definitely look into this. And I'll put links to both of these apps on the show notes. But today's episode that I listened to was with one of my favorite people ever. She just blows my mind.

And every time I hear her, I just get entranced in her voice. She is among many other things, a hypnotherapist, a world renowned hypnotherapist. Her name is Marissa Pierre, and the things that she talks about just really speak to me.

And so my personal passion for understanding our minds, how they work, how they show up in every day in our life, and how they pave our journey and experiences, really serves me in the world of helping people with money and numbers.

And so, as I did my routine and listened to this truly fascinating episode, which you should totally go listen to for yourself, I was able to see how it shows up in our money lives. And this is kind of how my brain works, right? Like connecting the dots, putting the pieces together. This is why, you know, I call myself the money whisperer. I understand, and I have a passion for these two worlds that normally would not collide, but I love it when worlds collide. And the cool thing about what we have labeled as woowoo in the past, things like meditation, altered states of reality, energy work, things like that.

Now science is proving science studies these things. They perform tests that hold up to scientific study standards, and the data is backing what we have historically discredited. And so it's a really exciting time to be alive and witness all of these discoveries happen that are truly transformational for us as individuals and for, you know, the world, the planet. It's, it's really amazing. And so, what I think in for just a moment, we are exposed to more stimuli in one week than our ancestors were their entire lives. And so the timing is really divine that, you know, science is starting to acknowledge things like meditation and energy manipulation, because what is meditation?

Meditation focuses on being able to control your mind, to master your mind at its core.

So in a day and age where we are completely inundated with absolutely everything, and it's so strategic technology and algorithms, it is so strategic. Like they have pinpointed us in algorithms, and they are essentially hacking our minds. They're using what they understand with the data, which our minds are giving 'em, and they are turning it on us trying to get more and more of our attention. So mastering your mind is one of the best things that you can do for yourself in this day and age. So when I think about, you know, this idea that our minds are always at work, our minds are always being pulled in this direction, in that direction, I think about our financial algorithms, is what I call them.

So just like social media has an algorithm, and the more you take action, which, you know, hit the like button, share, comment, view for more than 12 and a half seconds, it picks up on that and it gives you more of that, right? As an algorithm. You also have a financial algorithm.

And your financial algorithm are things like, what are you, what are you spending your money on? Do you sign up for a lot of subscriptions, right? What are those subscriptions? Is it, is it beauty products? Is it educational products? Is it stuff for your kids, right? Do you, do you recognize, like if you were to go back and look at the last year of how you spent your money and how you made your money, just observe some of the patterns. If you were going through a rough patch in one month and you saw your spending spike up, are you a therapy shopper, right? Are you constantly purchasing apps, having to do with health and exercise and eating, but you never use them?

You know, what is it that you can see in your money, in your financial algorithm? Because our minds are, are controlling our spending, right? Like, I need this thing, I wanna do this thing. I have to have this thing.

You know? Or is your financial algorithm experience, right? If you go back and look at the last year and you're like, man, I spent a lot of money, but it was on traveling and I created these, these moments and these experiences maybe with even people that I love that like, I'll carry with me for the rest of my life and that were really positive for me, right? Maybe, maybe in, you know, you purchased a lot of health and diet apps and you actually used them, you know, so your financial algorithm really shows your values.

Where you spend your money is a reflection of your values. You know, are you donating? Are you, maybe if you're not, you know, donating, maybe you are buying things for people that you love, right? You're, you're buying gifts for people, you're paying for people to travel with you, whatever that looks like for you. Like, are you lending your money to other people, other causes that you know you truly believe in? Because what you can also do with your money, just like you can, you can focus your attention, you can master your mind, you can master and focus your attention and your spending. And that takes mindfulness, right?

That means you have to actually look at where your money's going. You have to set boundaries, right? Probably in the form of a budget to say, I'm only willing to spend this on, you know, this certain area of my life, and I, and I am going to prioritize this. Maybe that's your retirement investment or your savings account to start a business. Whatever you are investing in for the long term, you know, maybe it's, well, that amount of money is gonna go over here no matter what. Every single month. It is intentionally prioritizing your values and allocating your money in these buckets, right? Which is why the Profit First Bank account system works so well, even in your personal lives.

Profit First is a book by Mike Mcic that lays out a really awesome way to manage your actual cash in bank. And the book speaks towards businesses and how businesses can, can achieve this. But it's a system and a structure that you can implement in your personal life just the same. But that's why it works so well. It physically separates your money so that you can visually see which works better with how our mind processes information and functions, right?

Like the way our brain works, this system is built in parallel with that. And so just as important as it is to focus our minds and really be intentional with the time and the energy and the focus that we have, we have to do the same with money. And so your mind really works to make things real for you in a physical sense. And in your environment, in your life, during your journey, your mind tells your body what to do. That's its job. You know, when you get sad, think about it. You, you get tears, right? When you feel embarrassed, your body responds with blushing, right? You feel hungry, your stomach growls.

This is the placebo effect, the placebo effect. We, you know, all have probably heard sometime in middle school and in high school about how, you know, because we believe that the pill was meant to do this, like our mind actually believed it, our body responded to that. That's, that's what the placebo effect is. There was a study done by a man named Sean Wells, where they had subjects that would think about having and growing bigger biceps. And they actually did like their muscles responded to intentional thoughts around their biceps getting bigger. Their body followed their mind. New York Times wrote about a study by j d Mokey, who also studied the placebo effect and started on things like skin conditions. And it worked.

And so then he moved into an even more aggressive study where he did it on surgery patients. He got 10 veterans that had arthritis of the knee, and all of these veterans were told that they were undergoing a surgery to correct, get rid of the arthritis. And so what they ended up doing is eight of those 10 veterans went into the surgical room, went under the anesthesia incisions were made, but they did not perform the surgery.

So eight out of the 10 were placebos. Only two of the 10 received the, the actual surgery. The other eight were made to think in all ways, including incisions in the knees that they had that surgery. And what happened is that all 10 of them, the arthritis was gone, all 10 of them. So the eight veterans that were told and made to truly believe that they had this surgery believed it, and their mind made it real. Their mind healed their body. It is fascinating you guys, and science is, this is science. This is no longer woo woo. And so when you understand things like this, you can apply it to all areas of your life, including your money.

That's why it's always never about the money. So then the question becomes, what are you letting into your mind around your money? So what are, what are you letting into your mind? If your mind and your, your thoughts control the reality, the actions, your environment, what you see around you, what your experiences with money, let's ask ourselves, what are you letting into your mind? Because your mind truly does command your money. Here's the magical thing about when you start to pay attention to this, how you feel about the process, like your mind, the numbers, command your spending, right? That's what a budget is. A budget is really, really simple.

It's basically how much money do you have to work with and where do you wanna allocate it? And just don't go beyond that. Like, it's very, very simple math, right? A budget can control your money, but your mind is what ends up creating the outcome, really, because it's deeper than just following a budget. So a budget can control your money, but how you feel about the process of actually following that budget can serve as insight into your beliefs. One of the rules of the mind that Marissa Pierre talks about is what you expect is a blueprint that your mind makes real. So say you start a budget next month, you do all the work to figure out, you know, what your're making, what your financial obligations are, where your fund money is, and what your long-term goals are.

And so you set this budget up, right? Let's say you even use the multiple bank account system to separate physically your money so that there's just no way that you can overspend because you have all these things in place, right? And let's say you go through this and maybe one or two months go by and you go back and you look and you're like, dang, I, I overspent. Why did I, why did I overspend? And let's say it was shopping, right? You spent too much money on clothes, okay, you got some money for clothes, but you overdid it. Cool. So then you adjust, and let's say the month after, you're like, oh, crap, I've reached my limit, but I really, really want this outfit. Like I have to get it.

I feel some type of negative way about not having this outfit. And maybe it's not something like an outfit, right? Maybe it's that, maybe it's something real and deep and near and dear to you. Maybe it's, you can't take your kids to the zoo this weekend like you want it to because the money's just not there. Like, that makes you feel some type of way about yourself, right? What it's doing is it's tapping into a belief, right? One of your fears, one of your insecurities, one of your beliefs about yourself, right? And that's hard, but it's something to look at.

It's something to look at because money money's the tool. These are the beliefs, right? And again, money is very, very simple. A budget is very simple math, what you have and what you wanna do with it, there is no difference unless you're gonna go into debt, which is a whole nother episode, right? And so pay attention because yeah, it, it, it sucks, but it's something to look at right? Within yourself. And then you are, once you have that awareness, once you identify those beliefs, you can start to change the narrative. You can start to change the storyline in your mind and what you're telling yourself. Like, yeah, we can't take the kids to the zoo, but like, what are we gonna do? Let's go to the park.

Let's do something that doesn't require money, right? This doesn't have to be about me and my value and my worth. I can get creative, I can find other ways, because what are you really doing? You're creating an experience for your kids. Experiences don't have to cost money, right? Money creates time. That's why we wanna make money, because we want more time, right? To do the things. But what are the things? Are you being intentional with your time? You know, one of the things that we are told in from a multitude of places is that money can make you happy. No money gives you time. It's what you do with that time that creates your version of happy. So what are you telling yourself?

What are the thoughts in your mind that you're telling yourself when you're struggling with your money? Maybe you can't spend it the may the way you want to. Maybe you're not making it the way you want to, right?

And so in that podcast episode, I really want you to go listen to it. Melissa Pier talks about her technique called Dick Energy, di I C C C, Dick Energy. And it's a practice that she, you know, shares in this podcast to help you learn how to start to change your mind in almost like a meditative way. Because your mind loves repetition. And if you can control the storyline, the narrative, and maintain that repetition, that's when the mind is creating a new blueprint, right? That you're gonna see happen in your life. Another rule of the mind that Marissa talks about is what you expect tends to be realized. What do you expect from your money, right?

Or do you have false expectations, at least for the money that you're making now? And be careful not to expect anything that places or takes away from value on yourself, right? Money is a tool, it's just a vessel.

What do you really expecting from it? So now I want you to take all of this, and I want you to put it in to work in your life, right? So let's talk about identifying the money beliefs. What are those beliefs that are driving and helping to create our thoughts, which are instructing our mind on how to create the reality of our situation, right? I want you to think about your imprint period.

Your imprint period is from ages zero to seven, which research has shown is this time of your life when you are a sponge, you are receiving information from the world around you from ages zero to seven. And then something happens to our consciousness around seven, eight years old, where we take what we've experienced and we from that experience, solidify over 50% of our core beliefs and values about the world around us. This includes money. So I want you to think back about that. What was your experience with money? What was your money story back then?

And then you have to really identify what it is that you want. What is, what is, what is it that you expect out of your money? Is it travel? Is it experience? Is it things? Is it house? Is it retirement? If so, when? How much do you need? What do you want out of your money? And keep in mind when you think about this, the question is not really what you want out of money, it's what you want out of your time. What do you wanna be doing in your life? Like, really think about it. Let's say you're working full-time now 40 hours a week, but by age 55, you want to spend 10 hours working on a hobby that maybe generates money or, you know, do something and then start to retire.

What do you wanna do in your retirement? What do you wanna do with the rest of your time? Do you wanna travel? Do you wanna go camping? Do you want to just work out what, like what is it that you wanna do with your time? Because everything has a formula, right? Everything costs money. No matter what your plan is, money's part of the plan.

So then you just reverse engineer it. You, you do the math, right? Of what your financial future needs to look like in order to spend time in the way that you want. So identify that, identify what it is that you want and where you're at so that you can start moving closer to that, that scenario that you want for your life.

And think about three things that you can actually do after listening to this, right? So if you don't have any clue where your money's coming from or where it's going, or it's just even fuzzy to you, you don't have a budget. Go look, go face the numbers. Go observe your financial algorithms. Go see how what's going on in your life is showing up in your money, what it could tell you. And actually look at it, keep up with it. This is not where we go back and reflect and not do anything, right? Keep up with it. Look at it weekly. The mind loves repetition. Think about it. Be aware of if you reach the end of your budget and you wanna spend money, but you can't, you know, what are, what are your feelings around that?

How does that make you feel? Does make you feel some type way, right? And so also identify your excuses, right? So if I, if I was to say, you know, I challenge you right now to reflect every week on where your money went, what's, what's the excuse gonna be, right? Well, it's hard for me to see in my bank. I, I don't have time. I, which by the way, you, you make time, you don't find time, right? This has to be a priority. So identify your excuses, because if you're unhappy enough with your money story, and even if it's not now and you're just not there, maybe someday you will be, but there's this threshold, right?

There's this threshold of when you're actually ready to, to make a change. And it is when the pain outweighs the comfort of familiarity. Maybe even though you don't like it, you're comfortable enough, right? But there's gonna come a point where the comfort isn't enough because the pain of the situation outweighs the comfort and familiarity. And so that's when you make that decision to make a change. So regardless of where you're at on your journey, there's always something that you could be doing. Okay, listeners, here's the deal. We are on a mission with this podcast, and I need your help. It kills me inside that people are not being taught about money and they are suffering because of it, especially our younger generations who are in school and not learning about it.

My big, hairy, audacious goal is that I wanna be something like the female Dave Ramsey and spread financial literacy like wildfire so we can change the course of history together. So now I'm recruiting you to help me in this vision, and I'm incentivizing you to spread the word with some pretty cool giveaways.

Once we reach 50 subscribers, we are chucking out some goodies to the world. So here's what you need to do.

Subscribe to our podcast and turn on those notifications, repost or share wherever you're hearing or seeing this, and submit the form for our giveaway. That form will be either in the show notes, if you're hearing us on the podcast social posts, we'll have 'em in the comments. And we also have it in our link tree, the literal day that we reach our first goal of 50 subscribers. We've got three chances for you to win. Our first giveaway is gonna be your choice of AirPod Pros or Samsung Buds, a t-shirt, and a free money strategy session with yours truly. The second giveaway is an Amazon gift card, that same t-shirt and the free session.

And the third giveaway is the t-shirt and the free session. I am so grateful to have all the listeners of Always and Never About the Money, and I think that together we can change the world's money story. If you liked this episode, be sure to show us some love by subscribing and turning on those notifications. You can find me on Instagram under the Money Whisper, and also where we encourage you to contribute to join the conversation, ask questions, and share your thoughts so we can create more episodes tailored exactly to what you wanna know about Money. I'm your host and your Personal Money Whisperer. Until next time, remember, it is always and never about the money.