89. Mindset Over Money with Amber Dugger

How do I stop letting money control my life and business? How can I change my mindset about money? Can I approach money more holistically? We have an engaging conversation with Amber Dugger the founder of Profit for Keeps and we delve deeply into our relationship with and around money, profit, and how it affects us and our business.

Where you can connect with Amber Dugger
Website: https://amberdugger.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amberndugger/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profitwithamber/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/profit.with.amber/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/amberduggerofficial

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You can find Dana @adashofboss, @dana.dowdell and @hrfanatic
Dana Dowdell – Boss Consulting – HR Consulting
Google -  https://tinyurl.com/y4wxnavx

You can find Russ @reliable.remediation
Russ Harlow – Reliable Remediation – Disaster Restoration
Google: https://g.page/r/CXogeisZHEjMEBA

Transcript

Dana Dowdell  00:05

Hey Russ.

Russ Harlow  00:06

Dana, how are you today?

Dana Dowdell  00:08

I'm lovely, how are you?

Russ Harlow  00:09

You are always lovely. That's not just today.

Dana Dowdell  00:13

I'm so frickin excited because we're talking with Amber Dugger. She is the founder of Profit For Keeps and a huge proponent of the Profit for Joy movement. And I feel like we're going to talk about so many different things that we've touched on over the course of this podcast related to money, and giving money, power and profit first, and just so many things, and it's just going to be a fantastic interview. So Amber, welcome to it's just business.

Amber Dugger  00:42

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here.

Dana Dowdell  00:44

I am so excited to have you. And I think that you're going to you're going to bring so much knowledge to our listeners. So you founded profit for keeps. And we were talking offline about the profit for joy movement, tell us a little bit about how profit for keeps came to be how you became an entrepreneur, and what your journey has looked like?

Amber Dugger  01:06

Well, being an entrepreneur was never something on my radar. I was definitely on the work in it in a secure job, my whole life track. And that was really what I knew all about from my own parents. And it was actually a very clear disruption that I think many of us experience if we don't listen to our intuition, to get us back on the path that we're truly meant to be on. So back in 2014, I was playing around with possibly becoming a personal trainer, because I was so unhappy in my corporate job. And I was just not fulfilled, I felt like my soul was dying a little bit every day in my cubicle. And so I was not doing the personal training thing. Instead, I was finding all these things to make my day better outside of work. And one of those things was riding a bike. So I would ride a bike to work and I finally got this new bike and put it together had a safety check, was riding at home and it fell apart. And it the whole front wheel and brake mechanism came apart. And it launched me off of my bike, and I landed headfirst into the asphalt, and it was life changing for me. After that accident, I had so much gratitude for the fact that I had all my teeth that I could breathe, that I was able to fully move my body, I had looked to the side and so all of the road rash was on the side of my face. And earlier that, you know that week I was really struggling and just in a very deep depression. And my now husband suggested to me that you started a gratitude journal, started the gratitude journal, and I was truly struggling to write anything down. And then that morning of accident, I wrote that I was grateful I could ride my bike to work. And a few other things. Well that more that evening, when I got home after about 32x rays and two heads scans, there were no broken bones. I wrote very easily I'm so grateful to be alive. And the next morning, it was just a flood of gratitude. And over the next few weeks, we realized that I had a brain injury. And so it took about a year to recover from that. But while I was recovering from the brain injury, I was listening to podcasts and found out about this thing called online health coaching. And I was like, Oh, this is totally what I'm going to do. And so I started I immediately took all of my money that was gonna go into my Roth IRA and put it into a health coaching certification, went through that for the year and had the determination that there was no plan B, this was going to happen. And I was going to make a living doing this. And so a year later, I graduated. I had four clients at the time and I left corporate, just knowing that this was what I needed to do. Well, I never thought I was going to touch finance again with a 10 foot pole. I was so done with the industry. I had worked in every part of the industry. I'd worked in nonprofit for profit government sector, it just was not for me. And about three weeks after I left corporate I was just floundering. I was really struggling with what the heck did I just do? I had this great job and I was we're making a lot of money. And now here I am making less than what I knew I needed to be making. And so I heard this other podcasts and another health coach in London was feeling the same way and had moved to Bali, Indonesia. So I said you know what, I need to go there. So I told my boyfriend, husband, now, I need to go there, I need you to listen to this. And he listened to it for about five minutes. And he stopped. He said, I don't need to listen anymore. I know you're going. And so three weeks later, I moved to Bali, Indonesia. And I joined this thing called tribe wanted, it was a group of entrepreneurs that were also in their startup phase. And so 50% of the time, we were meant to be working on our own business 25% of the time, we are going to really help each other and then the other 25% exploring the island. Well, it was during that 25% I knew no one needed help with health, people were really drawn to Bali because it was just so it was like a health Mecca, there was like yoga was all over the place, putting raw vegan stuff. But everyone was asking about how are you not stressing about money. And internally, I was stressing about money. So let's just make that clear. But I had a system that was helping me keep my sanity. And so it spread very quickly that I had this system. And people started asking me to do all sorts of different talks and women's circles. And it just came about that it was very clear, there's a very big gap between what people think they need to do around money for business, such as getting an accountant and a bookkeeper, which are necessary things. But the bigger piece how to pay ourselves when we don't have our own regular paycheck? How do we pay ourselves when we have variable income? How do we make sure that we're truly living the life that we were hoping to live when we were on the other side and corporate seeking freedom, and making sure that we actually have a business that supports all of that. And so that's how it started. And then very soon after that, someone told me about the book profit first and I read it, just the first three chapters, and I was like, this is the missing piece for the business side is the profit piece. I called up Profit First professionals, and then I became their, I think, third coach, back in 2016. And it's been history ever since.

Dana Dowdell  07:11

Okay, I know we're gonna talk about profit first, and YNAB, and all of that stuff, but I want to talk about your intuition. Because it seems like through that story that you had such clarity about, I need to go to Bali. Or, you know, I need to do a gratitude journal, I need to do health coaching, I need to sign up for this certification. Tell me about like that experience, you know, how did you How do you lean into that feeling of intuition, without the doubt without the other noise of you know, your other people in your life saying, really? Really? Is that a really good idea? Are you sure you want to do that? You know?

Amber Dugger  07:52

Yeah, it's a great question. So I would say probably, there isn't a way to not feel those things, especially in the beginning, when you're not practiced in it. I find that now, I'm even now, eight years later, still laughing at myself, sometimes when I think my intuition did say that. And I still didn't want to, I didn't want that to be true. And giving grace to yourself is so so important, I think. And so for me, it's just been a matter of really, meditation has been a huge part of it. So I started doing Transcendental Meditation shortly after my head injury, because I was looking for anything to alleviate headaches and things like that. And what in turn, it really did was really opened myself up to really knowing my true self and who we are inside outside of this, the shell of a body. And that has that has helped tremendously, but also just recognizing that I think the decisions and the situations and life that the things that bring us there, they never get easier, we just have a much better way of handling them and a much better way of listening to our own intuition. So I think practice is just one of the most beautiful things. And so if someone there's listening and just not feeling very in tune with your own intuition, just know that with practice, it gets a lot easier.

Russ Harlow  09:22

And it we always talk about women's intuition, right. But I mean, it's true for both. For both men and women, we, we know, we often have that where there's the voice in your head or that gut feeling or whatever it is. We know what's good for us. I know broccoli is good for me. I know I should be exercising. I know that money shouldn't be controlling me, but sometimes we just kind of ignore it and we move on. So I it's still more about getting past that. So what do you do to practice that? I mean, what are some of the, I don't know, tools or tips? Is it just being in tune? Is it listening to yourself? For being disciplined, I mean, what is it?

Amber Dugger  10:03

I think the more that we allow ourselves to be in a state of flow, the easier things are. And everyone has a different definition of flow. But it truly is when we're doing things based on the very next thing of just letting it be easy allowing it to be easy. I think a lot of times we are so ingrained as a society to be thinking through a situation, mentally processing and looking at the best outcome from a mental capacity. And that's a very Western way of looking at things. And it's something that we've all learned. And if you're going through a hard thing, oh, just stick it out, tough it out, you're going to be fine. That is sometimes very unhealthy for our relationship with ourselves and with our intuition. Just because society is saying that we need something society construct, or what we've been ingrained or conditioned to believe, the more that we can remove ourselves from Is this true? Is this really something that I believe I need to do? Or is this something that I feel like I should do, because others are expecting you to do so. And I find that when I am feeling frustrated, so I don't know if you guys are familiar with human design? A little bit. Okay, so there's what's called a not self theme in human design, and everyone is different. But it's basically when you're not living the way that you were designed to live life, you have specific feelings. So for me, it's frustration. For some people, it's bitterness, some people, it's anger, some people, it's, you know, different things. But for me, it's frustration. And when I feel frustrated, I tried to stop for a moment and ask myself, What is going on here? Am I living based on what I know I need to be doing? Or is this something that someone else is wanting me to do, and if not, isn't actually the right path. And that has been a really great tool. So if anyone wants to know their human design, you can, there's a lot of different free things out there. But you just need your birth date, your time of birth, and the place of birth, and then you can, there's so much on that. But another thing is, is truly just, I think, sitting down with yourself, and not having any outside influence. So a lot of times we get this advice from other people, and then it really creates a lot of noise. And so our inner wisdom is quiet. It doesn't matter if you're male or female, we both have these feminine and masculine energies inside of us. And the more that we can allow ourselves to be in a space, even if it's just a 20 minute walk, it can give us insights in a way that it's never going to work when we're just trying to get tons of advice from other people or trying to mentally work ourselves out of it.

Dana Dowdell  13:04

It's almost like we, it's common for people to seek advice from others to validate our own intuition in a way, right? I just saw this on the internet. I was, you know, Reddit forums are a beautiful thing. But I saw someone in a Reddit forum asking advice like, Is this happening? And someone's response was like, if you're going to the internet, to seek validation and advice from stranger, like, lean into what your initial, you know, feeling is, but it is it's so it's so so hard.

Amber Dugger  13:43

It can be absolutely, especially when you're not familiar with it, and that you just brought up another thing too, which is some of us make decisions sacredly, and some of us make decisions emotionally. And it's when when you know what type you are, and human design does explain all of that as well. Sacral decision makers know almost immediately what they need to do. And if they question outside of that, they can end up making the choice that is not right for them. But then they can get quite frustrated with an emotional decision maker that needs more time to really feel into it and see how you feel. So I'm an emotional decision maker. So as my husband, it took us almost 12-13 years to get married. And it's because it took that long to really feel into it. But you know, to sacral decision makers, they can get married in 10 days, and they will have just as successful that have an experience. So I think sometimes we also view other people's actions and then bring it back and compare and maybe even do a little bit of self judgment on how come I'm not like that. And I know I did that for a long time. Wondering why can't I make make these decisions faster. So I think Grace is such a beautiful thing. And also just really learning more about how you operate can help you just feel like, Okay, it's alright for me to be this way. We're not all exactly the same.

Russ Harlow  15:16

I mean, I can see how this affects just personal life and family and interpersonal relationships. But how do we then kind of bring this into business? And, you know, have it be a positive and an intentional positive change and experience for us in our business? I mean, what are some of the keys that? You know, we, I mean, obviously, being better as an individual and understanding ourselves, has its own benefits? But how do we do that with a business, there's so many things out of our control, right? And life's about control for a lot of us.

Amber Dugger  15:57

I think the first thing is really asking ourselves, why do we want the control, I am a recovering type A absolutely 100%. And the more that I have released control, and the more that I have allowed things to just be the way that they're meant to be, and focus much more on how I want to feel, and the outcome that I really looking to achieve. That has made a world of difference. I think that in business we have so especially now in the last couple of years, so many people telling others what needs to happen, what needs to be a part of the business. And very early on. I was, you know, I was around health coaches, and all of them thought we needed websites and brand photos and all of this stuff. I've been in business eight years, I finally did my first branding shoot this year, just I knew that an iPhone made was just fine. And I wanted to get to talk to people to put them in a coaching program. And that was my goal was not getting a website out of not having an opt in, it was not having even an email list. It was I need to make sure that I'm sustainable. And it's absolutely okay, in the beginning of your business. To ignore, everyone's saying, You must be focusing just on your impact. Because while that's a necessary component of business, obviously you need a a system or a process or an experience that the person that you're working with not only values, but absolutely needs, that's a given. But that said, when you first start out, you want to be able to make enough income to sustain yourself to build a pay yourself so that you can keep yourself feeling like grounded and able to help others. And I think that there is a lot of guilt that's not talked about when people first start businesses where they're really wanting to be able to pay their mortgage, they're really wanting to be able to, you know, not have to go back to a corporate job. And it can be very confusing. I think when you're first starting out, when you're thinking well, I need to be focusing on the impact. Well, if I'm focusing on the impact, and this person can afford to pay me, what am I supposed to do, you know, there's these confusing things that can happen. So I just really encourage everyone that I, that I that asked me about starting a business is just remember that in order for you to really truly have an impact on others, you must be okay. First, we must fill our own cups first. And that includes business and revenue and that type of thing. But I think that a lot of this stuff is extraneous, that people are saying needs to be in place. And so I find that you want to look for people who have actually truly accomplished what you're looking to accomplish next. And those are the people you want to listen to, not your neighbor, not the person at the grocery store, best friend, not your mom, unless they've done these things, because they are looking to protect you. And they are scared for you. And that just pile things on. But if you work with someone who's actually done what you want to do, there's a completely different outlook. There's a completely different mindset, and they can see specifically, what really matters. And so one thing that I did when I first started out that was a game changer that actually I learned from Marie Forleo was look for five to 10 people in your industry that are at least three years in business that are fully like in business, they are sustainable, they are making money and ask them what they wish they knew when they first got started. And that will save you three to five years of very painful trial and error. And that's actually why I knew not to have the website, why I knew not to have the opt in and to really focus on just speaking to people, and inviting people in to have a conversation, and have a place for people to schedule have a way for people to pay and zoom. And that that was really what I focused on. And that was a game changer for me for sure.

Dana Dowdell  20:24

One of the best pieces of advice that I've ever gotten from a career standpoint was the idea of like an informational interview. And I feel like that could be really useful in this concept where it's like you do you find those people who are doing what you want to be doing, and then ask them how they they got there. But I also think, and obviously, we'd love your input on this, but you know, it's a little nuggets of how they got there. But it's also staying very true to, you know, you're not copying and pasting their methodology necessarily. It's, it's a journey and staying true to who you are.

Amber Dugger  21:01

Absolutely, absolutely. Because I mean, I think a lot of times people think, Oh, they're never going to tell me any of this. I mean, I'm their competition. And no, I mean, like everyone that is in an industry that is truly in need, that they everyone knows that there is more than enough for everyone, and that we can all help and support one another. And I think that, you know, those, those little pieces may be mindset pieces. And maybe one thing specifically you keep hearing all over and over. And it's not actually what you need to do like the website. But yeah, I think that it's, it's so important to be able to have a community that you can reach out to that you can trust, because they are actually doing what you want to do. And I think that's the key piece there.

Russ Harlow  21:53

And I was thinking back to to all the people who are telling you what to do, or how to, and how to do it, are usually selling the things that they're telling you you need. I think that's an important thing to remember as well. And we're not saying you don't need those things, we're just saying, you know, it's not universal. So how does that tie in to money? And how does our relationship with money kind of affect, you know, how does it affect us? But I mean, that's really as simple as I can get? How does our relationship with money affect us and our business? 

Amber Dugger  22:27

Not at all, it doesn't affect us at all, all your money is 99% behavioral and emotional. So you know, when people think about money, and they go, Oh, I'm not a numbers person, or I was really bad at math as a kid. It's, it's 1%. And we have these beautiful calculators on our phones now. So it's like, it's not a numbers thing. It's really not, it's more around our experience with money or paradigm with money, what we view money, as I think there are different generations that have obviously gone through different experiences around money. I'm a child of the 80s. So my grandparents were heard great depression generation. And so for them, it was all about don't waste anything, I remember my grandfather taking the half sheets of the half sheets of the half sheets of the paper towels, to make sure that he wasn't wasting that. And that can have an effect on us. Because when we see that, and we see that from individuals that we truly love and respect and adore, that can affect how we then look at things. And I think especially when it comes to receiving money to, to charging money, a lot of times, and this is a big pet peeve of mine, there's this conversation around charge your worth. And I absolutely oppose that idea. 100% The reason for that is we are all infinitely valuable. There's absolutely no way and no bid no business and charging your worth anyway because it has nothing to do with you. When you are creating an experience or you are charging for something and someone is exchanging that it's an energy exchange. And it's all about how the other person perceives and thinks about the value of the experience or the thing that you're providing them. And that is what we are charging for not for anything about us. And so it was really interesting. I was listening to something by Michael Hyatt. And he shared that whenever you're thinking about pricing. Remember that you aren't doing this because you're naturally good at it. Typically, we go into business for things that we just haven't done actually interested in or affinity for. So it's very, very common and easy for us to not value it. Because if we are really good at marketing or really good at Facebook ads, we're never going to pay someone else to do that, especially in the beginning stages of business, if we're, if we're so good at it. But and so therefore, we don't necessarily value that service. And so then it can be very difficult to put a price tag on a service that we don't value. But if we put ourselves in the shoes of our client of our ideal client, and really feel into what they're experiencing, and think about the fact that they are actually staying up at night, worrying about this, thinking about this. And then imagine knowing and coming across someone that not only has a solution, but you actually see yourself being there having completed that and no longer experiencing this anxiety. What would you pay for that? Like, it's absolutely invaluable? Because money is totally renewable, we can always make more money, but we cannot have our time back. And we can't have our life back if we're feeling that way. And so that's what I suggest when looking at pricing is really feeling into the pain of the person that is experiencing it. And knowing that you can get them on the other side, what are they valuing that as, and that makes it a lot easier, I think to separate yourself and your own worth from from charging.

Dana Dowdell  26:37

I feel like I am your ideal client so much. And I want to ask so I, I am a big mental health proponent. I see a therapist, everyone should see a therapist. But my therapist always says to me, she's like, Dana, have a conversation with money. You know, have a conversation with money and talk to it like what what do you want it to do for you? What do you want it? How do you want it to serve you serve your life? And I've never been able to do it because I felt silly doing it. But she's you know, obviously, onto something because you're sitting there smiling, but like, how do we do that? How? You know, if you if you are my therapist, how would you guide me in having that conversation with money?

Amber Dugger  27:31

Yeah, well, the very first thing I would ask you is remove money from the conversation. And consider just how is what is it that you want to experience or feel in this lifetime? If money was not an issue, and you didn't need to worry about paying for anything? What is it that you really want to experience in this lifetime?

Dana Dowdell  27:52

Oh, okay we're doing it. Oh, okay. I want to experience just an immense amount of joy, joy in the moments that I spend with people and joy and like the human connection. You know, doing this podcast brings us a lot of joy. Spending time with friends brings me a lot of joy. Like I just that's what I want my life to be is just like, the shitting joy all the time.

Amber Dugger  28:23

I love it. It's making me think of the unicorn that poops you know, the, the ice cream,

Dana Dowdell  28:28

Like it's like the the asana unicorn that goes across the screen.

Amber Dugger  28:31

love that one. Yeah. In the past. Yeah. Okay. All right. So you love deep connection, you love spending time with others. And so what would allow you to be able to do that every day regularly, to feel that beautiful joy.

Dana Dowdell  28:51

Time, time, obviously. And you know, I think about my own business, I do a lot of work in the business working directly with clients. And that's, that brings me joy, but probably not as much as connecting with the business owner at the top level not at the HR level.

Amber Dugger  29:10

Okay, so time. What about are all the people that you love right in your vicinity? Are there people that are far away from you?

Dana Dowdell  29:19

Um, mostly in the vicinity, but like, you know, it would be like a half day or half day, okay. Yeah, a half day that I'd have to take off from work.

Amber Dugger  29:28

And would you ever care to travel other places to connect with other people outside of your vicinity?

Dana Dowdell  29:35

Always? Yes. And just just travel in general

Amber Dugger  29:39

Name three places that you would absolutely love to go where you could connect deeply with the people of that area. 

Dana Dowdell  29:48

Out west somewhere like not even people but like just nature Yellowstone, Yellowstone like big, you know, big things. Big nature things. Yeah.

Amber Dugger  30:00

I like the Redwoods in color. California, maybe? Yeah. The geyser in Yellowstone. The Tetons 

Dana Dowdell  30:10

Exactly! Um, I don't I don't know where else I haven't I've obviously haven't put much thought into this.

Amber Dugger  30:18

Just off the top of your mind, because this is not this is not a you know, graded test, and it can always change. So if you could truly just if someone was going to hand you a ticket right now to two other places, where would you go?

Dana Dowdell  30:34

Key West.

Amber Dugger  30:36

Hey, Key West.

Dana Dowdell  30:39

This is a weird one, Philadelphia,

Amber Dugger  30:41

Philadelphia, what's in Philadelphia?

Dana Dowdell  30:44

It's a beautiful city, and the people there are so kind. And there's so much art and vibrancy and history. It's like, perfect. Perfect city.

Amber Dugger  30:56

Okay, love it. So what I'm hearing from you is what's most important to you is spending time with friends traveling, going to the QS going to Southwest, being able to just have the leisure and really the blank space to not feel like you're tied to having to do something when you would really like to be connecting. So that is really the root of how you can be building the business going forward. And what I believe very strongly is when we create space for these intentions, and we call this a profit for joy list. So this is always asked by all clients, imagine you don't have any debt, you have all the savings in the world, what is it that you truly want to be able to allocate resources to. And the more that we really spend time adding to this thinking about this, and giving it life, things start to fall into place for that to happen. So it's very possible, instead of having, you know, 30 hours of clients a week, for example, to maybe 10 hours a week of clients, or, you know, there's all sorts of different options. But you can start thinking in that way of what if I just took away a day, and now I'm only working four days, or I'm only working three days or two days, but then still building a business around that. And it's so beautiful. So for anyone listening that is resonating with this question that Dana asked, I just invite you to brainstorm and have fun with thinking through what it is that you really want to be experiencing and living. And whenever you start to get thoughts of, oh, that's never going to happen, or this is so silly for me to do this. Just try to release those thoughts for a moment and allow yourself to play. And that right there starts to set the intention, and allows you to then see that it's just resources, allowing you to experience the things that bring you the feelings of joy and love. And that's what money is there for to support us in that journey.

Dana Dowdell  32:56

Okay, did you get a social worker school? School? Oh, my God, no.

Amber Dugger  33:03

I have a degree in business and finance. 

Dana Dowdell  33:06

I have a sticky note in my office. And it was actually another therapist that told me this, but she said get dreamy, you know, get dreamy about what do you want to do? What do you want? You know, your life, your life to look like?

Amber Dugger  33:18

It's so it's so important? Because if we don't do that, who's going to end? Would you really want anyone else to do it for you?

Dana Dowdell  33:25

No, but I think you know, the analysis paralysis, and I'm sure this is what you help clients with is like, you have those feelings, right? You have these, this list this list of joy, things that you want to do, but then how do you take it and actually bring it to fruition?

Amber Dugger  33:44

It's so exciting. It's such a great question. I'm so glad you asked that question. So I believe very strongly that settling the nervous system allows us to start creating that journey. I don't believe that we're actually open to any sort of creative idea or opportunity for us to really move into that direction. If we are so stressed and exhausted and anxious from all of that, and it's it's becoming such an epidemic for all of us. I mean, we are all experiencing this in some form. And when we settle our nervous system, we start to see things in a different way. It's all about looking at things from different perspectives. So a lot of times we have our one perspective so if I'm holding up I know that we can't see video but I'm holding up this this glass that I have this Yeti glass and on my side, I see a particular emblem but on your side you see something different. So if I only made all my decisions based on seeing the metallic Yeti, but you see the embossed Yeti that is kind of the same color as my glass. This isn't a glass But you know what I mean? Like a thermal cop, we would have different, we're having different experiences with the same thing. And so when we settle our nervous system, we start to open up those different perspectives. And I think that is the absolute first step. And it's our ego that keeps us in this state of analysis, paralysis of really is protecting us, right? It's saying, Oh, this is a dangerous thing to move forward. But when we can release that, and really start to get to know us ourselves in the different perspectives, and through experience, I think that for me personally, I have learned more and more, what the universe has your back really means. Because, well, I have battled my entire life with the fear of being destitute. I don't know why, but it's always been a fear of mine. And the more and more that I settle my nervous system through meditation, through journaling, through looking at truly some spiritual practices that I've done. It's allowing me to quiet that a bit more and allow myself to move forward. But it's going to be different for everyone. And I think most importantly, it's about do I feel anxious, what energy is around me? What can I do to, you know, perhaps change the way that I'm thinking about this, the circumstances and change, but the way that I feel can change, and therefore the result can be different?

Russ Harlow  36:39

I have opened my mind a lot, especially since starting this podcast. And I just know, because I was this guy, you know, 12 months ago, I know there's somebody out there thinking, This just sounds a little bit fruity to me. And because it's hard to accept that, you know, there's, there's something to it is and I'm really coming to realize how much there really, is to what you're saying. And so what do you say to the skeptic? Because I know they're listening, and they're like, oh, geez, I don't this again. But there's some there's so much truth in this. That's what they're saying. That's what skeptics say.

Amber Dugger  37:18

I love this. Okay, so, um, hello out there. Welcome to me five years ago, that was totally me. 100%. When I started my first health coaching mastermind thing, I was so annoyed with the person running it because she wanted to spend the whole first month on thinking grow rich and writing your desire statement. And I was like, I do not care about Kate Spade stationery, I want to be able to pay my mortgage. Thank you very much. Can we please just get on to how to make money. That was my that was truly my outlook. And I grew up in a very pragmatic household. My father is a theoretical physicist, we had the Encyclopedia Britannica behind the dinner table, and it was pulled out at least once a night. I grew up Catholic, definitely, definitely not talking about what I talk about now. So I can, I can assure you that this was definitely from experience that I just kept witnessing over and over clients achieving things that I never honestly thought possible. And it was all through the power of thought and intention. I thought, well, that must just be lucky for them. Like, yeah, they got this, because it just happens to be them. And this is not normal. But the thing is, I really believe that we have to take baby steps that allow us to experience for ourselves, no one is going to change your mind except for you. And they and really, that's a very good thing. I wouldn't want anyone to have control over my thoughts, or how I take action. But what I have seen is that the system that we put together to settle the nervous system is a very masculine system. It's taking very concrete things and looking at the personal and business expenses, reverse engineering, the revenue goal to really see what's necessary and what you want to be striving for. So that results that's why that piece is so important. And I think that when you go through the masculine steps of feeling like I am taking action, I am in control. But allow yourself to feel into what is it that I would really love to have happen that I would love to call in. We tend to have it happen naturally because our nervous system is settling because we're taking action similar to when, you know like if after Thanksgiving, like I always feel like oh, but then if I go to the gym, or go walking or something even though it really didn't do anything, it didn't change anything or how much I ate or anything, but it does make me Feel a little bit like, Okay, I'm doing something. So even if you haven't lost weight, you can still feel like you're in control because you feel like you're taking action on something which you are saying with this, when you start to really be an active participant in your cash flow and in your money, I believe that that settles the nervous system enough to allow yourself to just take that next step. And I see it all the time, individuals that are very concrete, that go through and then realize, oh, my gosh, I really can call this and I can really make this happen. But one of the books that helped me most with this was Psycho Cybernetics because of the way it was written. Have you heard it's by Maxwell? Maltz. Yep, it's over there on my, on my table. So Maxwell Maltz. And he was a he was not a psychologist, or a neuroscience person. But he and that's what's actually good thing similar to Mike McCalla, it's not being a money person, you can see things from a different perspective. And so he saw the way that our brain works from a completely different perspective than a neuroscientist does. And he explains it in a very biological way, the power of intention and how it works. And it's fascinating and talks about the creative and survival mechanisms that we all have within us as human beings. It's fascinating. So I would recommend that if anyone's feeling a little bit like, I don't know how this all makes sense, it really does. And I'll just say one other thing. My father, who has never been into the woowoo, he picked up a book. We were it was for Mother's Day, my mom loves to read. So I took her to one of the only bookshops left around. And he picked up this book. And it was about the time space continuum. And I was like, What are you doing? Like you're picking up this book? That seems like very, not the type of physics that you're into? And he said, Well, you know, there's just seems like, there's a lot more evidence around the fact that we are not on a linear time. And for me to see my father, pick that book up, I thought was just a complete and total game changer for me in terms of the evolution of all this because I do believe that there is an explanation. And for many, many 1000s of years, there have been intuitives that just truly have felt it for a long time. But now there's actually evidence that are backing up what I believe has always been true.

Dana Dowdell  42:39

I feel like we need to start and it's just business book club, because we get so many good recommendations for books that have changed our guests lives or books that our guests have written, that have changed other people's lives. So thank you so much for that recommendation. Where can people find you? Well,

Amber Dugger  43:02

I am on Instagram at profit dot with dot Amber. I have a profit for joy TV. And that's just Amber Duggar on YouTube. So if you just search my name, you'll find my YouTube channel. and my website is Amber geiger.com. And we regularly hold masterclasses talking all about profitability, sustainability and the feminine and masculine sides of money

Russ Harlow  43:30

I want to thank you so much for being here is just thank you.

Amber Dugger  43:38

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Russ Harlow  43:43

I can't even express it's an please take this as a conflict because you just radiate peace and joy and wisdom. And I hope that over the web and the audio that that is that gets to our listeners because man have I experienced it in a big way. Really fantastic meeting you and spending this time with you. Thanks for stopping by the podcast and thank you to our listeners who are here and have gotten this great gift from Amber. We're going to have where you can find her in our show notes. Check it out, follow, learn and be open to change. You can find us at it's just business podcasts on all the places and I think it is business and it is also a little bit personal. So thanks for being here.