Key Takeaways
- How Belinda first started Own Your Money – and why she decided to completely shift her business model to accommodate the lifestyle she wanted.
- The moment Belinda realized that a course-based business model wasn’t going to work to educate her clients and make continued impact.
- Why Belinda believes that tips and tactics are far less important than mindset to create change and make someone feel really good about their life and the direction they’re moving in.
- The best pieces of feedback Belinda has received from her membership site.
- Belinda’s ultimate vision for her membership site – and why she believes so much in mutual support and taking risks.
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“If you want to learn it, take a shortcut and hire someone who’s done it before.” – Belinda Rosenblum “When you step in this place of ownership, you realize that it’s important to appreciate and handle the emotional side and the tactical side. It’s not one or the other because you won’t be able to take consistent powerful action. It’s when the two come together, that’s when you can really move forward.” – Belinda RosenblumEpisode Resources
Own Your Money Self-Worth to Net Worth Money Makers Academy Manage Your Business Money Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and IndonesiaTranscript
Read The Transcript
Shelli: Belinda Rosenblum, welcome to the It’s a TRIBE Thing Podcast. Buddy, how are you?
Belinda: I’m doing great. It’s so exciting to be here, Shelli.
Shelli: Finally, it’s been a long time coming, so I’m super glad to have you. So, Belinda, you are a CPA and wealth expert and you’re going to help us understand all things money, money management, money mindset, and the like, but before we get started. Would you mind telling our amazing audience who you are and how you got to be in the position you are now and who you serve?
Belinda: Sure. So, yeah, that could be the whole podcast, Shelli. I’m going to give a slightly abbreviated version. So, I created this company called Own Your Money now 12 plus years ago and we have served women and couples to be able to make more, save more, and really stop stressing about money. And as a part of that, we taught them a lot of tactical skill but also a lot about their attitudes in psychology around money. And so, we’ve been in this personal-finance realm now for 12 plus years. I’ll tell you when I started it was in 2007, so everyone was very skeptical about me starting a business to teach people about money. If you can remember pre-recession, everyone was riding high like nobody really wanted to think about, “Oh, should I be tracking my money? Should I have a better sense of where I’m at?” and then I was very well-positioned though. So, for all of you out there who are feeling like your family and friends don’t understand what you do or why you love doing it like stick with it if you’re committed to it because I was literally on the 5 o’clock news in Boston on the day of the federal bailout because I was talking about the stress and the things that people needed to be doing with their money before anybody else was.
Like, I had that, you know, as you would talk about, like so many folks, but that intuitive hit like this is what the world needs and I want to be the one to do it. And so, that was after a year-and-a-half of living Eat Pray Love, again, before it was a hit, but I left my corporate job after 15 years and I had an early midlife crisis as an overachiever and I do everything early, it seems. And so, I took off this year-and-a-half to figure what the heck I want to do with my life and I left corporate and I started this business and then I did a lot of speaking and coaching for the first five, six years, got married, though, and I wanted to create a family and a different life for myself and I looked at my business that I just worked so hard to be multiple six figures and I was like, “This is not going to get me the family that I want. It was just way too time intensive for me.” I was doing my workshops. I was speaking around the country. I was on TV. I had a TV show, I had a radio show, but it wasn’t supporting me in the new life that I wanted. And so, in 2012, I decided to shake things up, hiring a business coach. I’m definitely one of those people that says if you want to learn it, take a shortcut and hire someone who’s done it before.
Shelli: Absolutely.
Belinda: And teach you how. Then I went to Stu McLaren’s mastermind like I go to the best and in 2012, I started creating programs and this is before online programs were what they are now. But I created one in February. I don’t necessarily recommend this, but I was on a mission. So, I created one in February, one in April, published my book called Self-Worth To Net Worth in June, third five-week program I released in September and then I created a six-month program in November and then I found out at Tony Robbins’ Date With Destiny that I was pregnant in December.
Shelli: So, you are not an overachiever really at all.
Belinda: No, not really. One of the things, people are so worried I think about developing courses and how am I going to get people in but I was like I just want to do it like I knew that I had something that I could teach. I knew that this was something people needed and so I just created these courses and what I did was I created them with the intention that, yes, I wanted people in there initially in those like beta programs, but it was really that over the next three years I wanted to be able to sell those programs. And so, I had 20 people in the first one, 20 people in the second one, 65 people in the third one so I kind of figured out how to launch it by then. And then launch the six-month program and then I had all the best of intentions that I was going to revisit and redo those programs. Nope. Never happened. I got pregnant and then it was a whole different ball of wax and I just started selling those programs. So, we sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of those five-week programs and 2013 I had my first baby. So, Seth was born, 2014 got pregnant again, 2015 then had another baby, that’s Tribeca, and then 2016 I was like, “Okay, I’m good with those programs. I’ve helped tons of people with them. I’m done having kids. What’s next?”
So, then in 2016 that’s when I launched my membership site so and that’s where the Money Makers Academy came from and I decided that people didn’t just need five weeks. They needed more time with me like they needed more time to implement and to ask their questions and then when it came to money it’s not just something you do once. It’s like a new habit and new practices that we wanted to create for people. So, I created that program on the personal-finance side and then I’ve been launching that and hosting that now for the last two-and-a-half years and now we’re shifting. I find that every two or three years I like to reinvent my business. I don’t know if other folks feel the need for that too. But I feel like I evolved and the people that I want to serve evolves a little bit and so now we’re in 2019 looking to not just help women and couples but to really support business owners and particularly women business owners who are making six figures who felt like, gosh, this is going to be it. And then they’re like, “This, this…” I don’t know if I can curse but like this isn’t it like this is tough. I’m working my tail off and I don’t have much to show for it and it’s got to get better like what do I do? Six figures is not at all I was hoping.
Shelli: Yeah. It’s the holy grail at the beginning until you’re there and you’re like, “Wow. There are some expenses here.
Belinda: Like $100,000 in the corporate world is a totally different number than $100,000 as a small business owner and so now that’s going to be the next front and so you’ll see a new program, a new membership site, all that stuff really supporting women entrepreneurs.
Shelli: I love it. I’m curious to know so you started out doing courses and for those who are listening who either have membership sites that they’re looking to grow or for those people who are looking to start membership sites, what was the advantage of having a membership site so transitioning from courses to membership sites in a way that you can serve people on a more regular basis?
Belinda: Answer: Hands down recurring revenue. So, it’s recurring revenue and it was continued impact so I would feel like I can help these people for the five weeks. I even tried to extend the program to eight weeks so I could give them more time to implement. But I wanted to be able to see them make the sustainable change and for them to be able to come to me with their questions so it’s like I’m empowering them to go and budget or to go make more money or to do those things and then they get those things but then there’s a new set of problems that they have that I could keep solving for them, but in the course, they’re done. Bye-bye. And so, with a membership site it felt like it gave me the space to really build the community and build a connection that I love and that I love being able to know our people and to be able to help them and to be able to make such a difference in their lives over a continued period of time.
Shelli: Right. I love that you said that because especially, I mean, in many niches, but especially with money there are so many moving parts. There’s yes, the money piece and the wealth piece, but we are speaking earlier about mindset and about really kind of reframe your perspective on money and making money and what having money means and then what to do with it and how to be a good steward of it. And that’s kind of like bathing. You have to do that regularly, especially because it’s a new habit. So, they come through your course and they learn all of the things, but really, it’s sort of a maintenance program for wealth and for being able to be a good steward of that wealth.
Belinda: Right. Exactly. And one of the things that you’ll notice too is that some people will say like new level, new devil. What happens is that as you start to make more money or as you start to save more money, new things come up for you like these other layers of beliefs or stories or limiting honestly mindset and limiting beliefs that you have that you didn’t have at say the $50,000 level. But now at the $100,000 dollar level, you’re like, “Who am I?” Like, what if I’m bad with money at this level or what if I squander it? Or, oh my gosh, if I look at my parents, I watched them lose $100,000 and so then there are additional levels that when you get to that level of wealth, additional challenges arise. And so, when I’m working with you over a longer period of time, I have the ability to support you through those.
Shelli: Can you talk at all about, you know, you were talking about the title of your book, Self-Worth To Net Worth, how do you think the personality or the psyche of the person relates to how they deal with money and how do you work your way around that with the people you serve?
Belinda: I mean, I feel like so much of the time we try and just do the tips. We try and do what we learn and just the tactical stuff but then we don’t ever go anywhere. It feels like it’s not sustainable. It doesn’t stick. And so, the reason is because it’s not aligned with who we really are, who we believe ourselves to be. And so, the point of Self-Worth To Net Worth is giving you that kick in the pants to say, “Wait a second. If I work on the inner game, it will then help me align with the bigger outer game that I want to be creating in my life and in my world.” And so, what you’ll find for me and this is just part of the special sauce of my company is called Own Your Money is that when you step in this place of ownership, you realize that it’s important to appreciate and handle the emotional side and the tactical side. It’s not one or the other because you won’t be able to take consistent powerful action. And it’s when the two come together, that’s when you can really move forward and you feel like, “I’m in the right place. I’m doing what I need to be doing. I’m making the money that I can. I’m saving what I can,” and like you feel really good about your life.
Shelli: I love it. What is the best piece of feedback that you’ve gotten from somebody who has experienced your membership site? I’m always interested in the ripple effect like when your membership site like when you’re able to start it and sustain it and have it be successful, the people you serve, what is the ripple effect for them? What’s your favorite piece of feedback?
Belinda: That’s awesome. It’s a great question and I feel like part of what we have the ability to do as thought leaders is to create that. And so, on the personal-finance side, I feel like people have been able to be better mothers, better wives, better daughters when they’re not holding money as such a burden, and such a shame for them. So, when they’re paying off $17,000 of debt and I know for me personally that I was 28 and I was literally like under mountains of bills and mail. I become family CFO when my dad had a stroke and I was the one that was put in charge and I did not know what the heck I was doing back in my 20s and I had no systems. It was just a big mess and I know I couldn’t even look my sister and my dad in the eye because I knew how much shame I was holding on to. And so, literally, it took me six months to work through all the paper and mail because it keeps coming, FYI. Just because you decide you’re going to handle it, doesn’t mean it stops, right?
So, I had gone into such a destructive rinse and repeat cycle that I was under these huge stacks of bills and mail and I know that I wasn’t able to be the person that I wanted to be in the world feeling that that frustration and shame about what I was creating in the world. And I think when I see the shifts in our students it’s often about, yes, on the physical tactical side they’re paying off debt, they’re getting raises, they’re launching programs that they were feeling scared to do maybe before they stayed in a lot of the spinning or the stuckness of it instead of just doing it. Like, what if you just do a program and you only help eight people, you help 20 people, and then you launch it again and then you launch it again? And that it’s about helping them realize their own power in the world. I think potential is a terrible place to be stuck in. And so, it’s like we think that, “Oh, I want to get to my potential.” No, I want you to get to the power that’s possible when you take action. And that’s so much of what we look to do and kick you in the pants that you want to do in the program.
Shelli: I love it. I hand holding and a kick in the pants is always good.
Belinda: All at the same time. And a hug probably in there too.
Shelli: I’m always been fascinated by the ripple effect and it’s what I call roots and wings. So, part of it is like the practical tactical and the other part is like the creative or the output or the benefit that people. And so, when you were talking about you are able to allow people to be better mothers, you can always take that a step further. It’s like, well, what about the kinds of humans they’re raising because they’re better mothers? When you talked about the roots, it’s like right back to the point where when you were thinking, “Do I or don’t I start this online business? I don’t necessarily know how to do all the things,” there’s always that root that you trace it back to that moment when you made a decision you said yes and you went for it and then you trace it all the way through so you did the course, you did the membership site. You’re changing people’s lives, you’re creating better mothers that are creating better children. You’re like it’s always so fascinating to me that people think it’s just a membership site and it’s so much bigger than that.
Belinda: I totally agree. I feel like that’s actually part of what has me even more excited about going down this road of helping entrepreneurs because I feel like if I can help you then you can help all of your students and then the students can then change their own lives and their own families and maybe their own businesses and there’s such an impact that we have, but we never allow ourselves to have it if we don’t ever start in the first place.
Shelli: Absolutely.
Belinda: If we don’t do that membership site, if we don’t put ourselves out there in the way that we know we can’t. So, I love your roots and wings analogies.
Shelli: Amazing. If you were only able to give one piece of advice to somebody who is thinking about starting membership or has one and they want to take it to the next level, what would you say has been the biggest thing that has impacted the way you do membership site and the strategies, tactic, tips, tools, or whatever that you would suggest that they hone in on? What would be the one piece of advice you would give them?
Belinda: It’s a big question, Shelli. I think that one of things that it took so I’ll say I launched a membership site before I took the TRIBE course and, believe me, every day almost I wished that I took the TRIBE course and then I launched the membership because I feel like I’ve been redesigning it a little bit so as a side tip I would say take it and then implement it, but that one of the things is to teach us which I love is this idea of having a clear path for your students to take, for them to say, “Okay. This is where I am now,” and with no judgment or shame about this is my starting point, but just like this is where you are like as a fact. And then this is where we can take you to and that gives them an idea of hope and inspiration and motivation like, “Okay. I can do this for,” because I feel like for so many particularly around money, they feel like they’re a mess and they feel like they’re alone and they don’t know how to ever get out of it. And so, if I can show them the steps to move from the stress to secure then they’re like, “Okay. Maybe it doesn’t have to be so bad forever.”
So, for everyone who’s listening to think about that for your own site, for your own path, and I think for a course it’s like that even on a smaller scale so that you’re super clear on what that promise is of the program or a mission of the program, but particularly for a membership so that they can see what that path would be for them to be able to do it, and specifically what steps they want to be taking to be able to reach each next level and then as they can start to do that and I think that that really makes such a difference. And then there’s one quick little thing that you had triggered for me. I think the other piece of just what I know I have brought to the membership which has made a real difference is I bring my heart like it’s not just tactics. I really care and I want everyone like when you’re creating a site, create it with people that are the people that you want to help and that really you can’t own their success. That’s a pretty big deal actually.
I think sometimes we’re afraid to grow our students because we’re afraid that we can’t guarantee their success. You can teach them. You can show them the path to walk but you can’t carry them on that path. And that’s an important learning that it’s taken me a bit to learn but I’m recognizing it now. So, I get to teach all of you now. You just have to [inaudible – 17:32] but that they always know that I care about them. They always know that I have their best interest at heart and I just want to see them achieve what’s possible to themselves.
Shelli: Well, it is true. You come for the content, but you stay for the community and here’s the thing. The truth is palpable. And when somebody cares about you genuinely, you know it, and that is actually although you don’t own their success, you can then be instrumental in their success because they are able to let go of the wheel because they trust you.
Belinda: Right. And I think that they can jump and they know that you’ll be the safety net and the community will be the safety net that no matter what happens, they will learn, the idea that like it’s not failure, it’s feedback. And I think that that sometimes there is a launch that we had for our academy and it didn’t go quite as well as I would’ve hoped, but honestly, it then opened me up to, “Wait a second, maybe there’s a slightly different direction that I could be taking that would be more fulfilling for me that might hit the mark a little bit more with what I want to do?” And maybe if that launch had been off the charts, maybe I wouldn’t have considered this. And so, it’s just about constantly like being open to the feedback and not seeing anything as a failure or judgment on yourself but just being open to the possibility that it’s presenting in front of you and I feel like that’s what I’m making happen and that’s what I truly believe is possible for everybody listening today.
Shelli: One last question for you. What is your ultimate vision for this membership site? If you were to be able to fast-forward to three, five years, logic is not a thing, what is your ultimate vision for this membership site for the people it serves and then for the ripple effect creates?
Belinda: That’s awesome. Okay. So, yeah, what I foresee is this incredible pilot program let’s say of the one that we’re creating, this manage your business money, and I foresee that as being an incredible course and then a group coaching program off of that that’s a membership and that will have hundreds or, actually, thousands of people in it who are all supporting each other to grow their businesses, to step out of their comfort zones, and to be the kick-butt CEOs that they can be when they have their numbers dialed in. And truly, it’s like, think of the successful CEOs you know. They know their numbers. They’re not afraid of them. And so, for all of you listening, like you can be that person too and so that’s what I see. I see thousands of people all supporting each other and feeling really willing to take risks. I think that’s an important quality for entrepreneurs and that they know their numbers that they know how to rebound. So, even if something doesn’t go as well as they hope, they feel like they have the confidence to just pick themselves up and go do something else and go make money in a different way. But it’s all helping these thousands or then helping those thousands and we’re just creating such goodness in the world.
Shelli: I love it. If people are looking for you online, Belinda, where is the best place they can find you?
Belinda: Awesome. So, for our main company is Own Your Money and I am Own Your Money everywhere. I’m at Own Your Money, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, all that and then the new site will be or kind of business venture let’s say for entrepreneurs is at ManageYourBusinessMoney.com and so you can get some awesome freeness for our entrepreneurs there as well possible.
Shelli: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time and for dropping some gems and for being just your awesome self. We appreciate you.
Belinda: Thank you so much and, Shelli, thank you so much for what you do here for It’s a TRIBE Thing.
Shelli: My absolute pleasure.
[END]
