Tag: women and money

Whose Money Is It Anyway?

by Chantal Pierrat

Oh boy – we are talking money again, sisters! I can’t help it. Time and time again I am finding this topic to be the source of so much anxiety for women. Retirement, earning potential, glass ceilings, re-entering the workforce or leaving the J_O_B to become an entrepreneur. It all leads to the recurring bag-lady nightmare for me (am I the only one that has that?).

Regardless of our place in the journey, we seem to be in perpetual fear that there will never be enough, or that we will lose what we have, or worse, that we are fundamentally undeserving of anything above the bare minimum to survive.

In my case, my angst started when I left the snug comfort of my steady executive publishing job to start Emerging Women. I was traveling regularly to New York, LA, London, and Germany on an expense account. I had superfine outfits to support my super-groovy life. I bought a house in North Boulder (now known as NoBo – that should give you an idea) with my husband. I always had money for yoga, dance, and organic smoothies. I was set!

Then the goddess said “do your thing” and it all changed. I decided to leave the womb of a company I loved, an incredible mentor, and a decade of transformational personal and career growth to become an entrepreneur. What was I thinking?!?

Since then, I have wrung my hands, chewed my cheek, and even had to get a mouth guard to keep me from gnashing my teeth in the middle of the night. All from money anxiety. How was I going to support my family and this lifestyle to which I had become passionately accustomed? 

I consider myself a successful woman. I make things happen, I am creative, a visionary, and I love helping women rise. And I rode on this energy for the first year of Emerging Women, taking personal and professional risks that were worth taking. As I followed the natural growth of EW, there seemed to be more and more pressure, more risk, and less cash. I found myself pushing and driving to manage the cash constraints to the point of exhaustion.

Luckily, I’ve found women I trust to help me take more ownership over my finances. They guide me and encourage me to really dig into old patterns while developing healthy, concrete habits to both grow my business and stay rooted in my personal finances.

Amanda Steinberg, founder of DailyWorth and WorthFM, is one of those women. If you haven’t yet, tune in to her Emerging Women podcast Worth It to hear how to get ready for the “perfect storm of opportunity” coming up around women and money.


Another woman I trust, Barbara Stanny, is my rock when it comes to moving my money mindset from survival to stability to affluence. If you’re looking for a similar shift, her Emerging Women podcast Sacred Success: A Woman’s Guide to Authentic Power and Affluence is a must-hear.

Nancy Levin has also been so important by reminding me that the real key to creating financial freedom isn’t changing what we do, it’s changing our limiting beliefs about how we feel—and that requires more than just learning how to invest. Here’s an Emerging Women Power Practice Boost Your Self Worth to Grow Your Net Worth to start uncovering and removing limiting shadow beliefs about worth.

But then one day I was talking to Tosha Silver, my go-to for all things surrender and divine, and she floated this concept that it’s NOT really my money. What the what? Whose is it?!

Tosha’s core message of working with the unknowable forces in the universe, co-creating your life in connection or in relationship to something greater than yourself, of letting go and trusting that the mystery will flow in a positive way for you if you truly offer yourself up to it, applies 100% to the realm of money as well. And that’s perhaps the most powerful, if not the most challenging, realm in which we can let the practice play out. Whoa.

Check out Tosha Silver’s long-awaited 8 part money course It’s Not “Your” Money: Fully Living From Divine Abundance. It starts on March 22nd, so nab your tickets now and let’s do the work together on releasing the blocks to receiving.

The first 3 women’s views help me check the boxes and dot the i’s, both externally and internally. And knowing that money ultimately does not belong to me allows me to surrender and not worry if I’m just a financial hot mess. All 4 of these women have shared wisdom that is freeing me from white-knuckle saving and a manic number crunching, allowing for a softer interplay of competence, worth, and trust.

What’s your money story right now? The more we talk about this “taboo” subject, the more opportunity we’ll give ourselves to, as Amanda Steinberg so beautifully puts it, grow stronger roots and freeing wings around our finances.

Power Practice #17: Boost Your Self Worth to Grow Your Net Worth

by Chantal Pierrat

Is money a constant source of anxiety for you? Nancy Levin, Emerging Women Live speaker and author of Worthy: Boost Your Self Worth to Grow Your Net Worth, has a practice that should help.

The real key to creating financial freedom isn’t changing what we do, it’s changing our limiting beliefs about how we feel—and that requires more than just learning how to invest. Ready to give it a shot? Discover which beliefs may be inhibiting your sense of self worth, and unlock the potential to grow your net worth in the process.

Play Power Practice #17 – Boost Your Self Worth to Grow Your Net Worth:

Nancy LevinNancy Levin is the bestselling author of Worthy: Boost Your Self-Worth to Grow Your Net Worth, Jump … And Your Life Will Appear and Writing For My Life, She’s a Master Integrative Life Coach and the creator of the Jump Coaching and Worthy Coaching Programs, working with clients – privately and in groups – to live in alignment with their own truth and desires.

She was the Event Director at Hay House for 12 years and hosts her own weekly call-in radio show Jump Start Your Life on Hay House Radio, Thursdays at 8am PT/11am ET.

She is also Contributing Editor of Kristen Noel’s Best Self Magazine and one of the hosts of the Hay House World Summit each year since its inception.

Nancy received her Masters in Creative Writing and Poetics from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and she continues to live in the Rocky Mountains.

Like what you hear? Try Bari Tessler’s Power Practice #06: Crafting a Money Practice to go deeper into your money mojo:


Why not get in on four full days of power practices, movement, inspiration and collaboration at Emerging Women Live, October 5-8, 2017 in Denver, CO? Join us!

5 Ways to Reshape Your Relationship with Money

by Chantal Pierrat

Running a start-up with limited capital is tough, right?

You know you have a brilliant idea, and you know you could ROCK THE WORLD if you just had a little cash to implement it. So you shop your genius idea around, offering investors the chance to get in on the action. And then you start to lose your mind…

The challenge of raising capital for a new enterprise brings up many psychological and (dare we say it?) spiritual issues with regard to our relationship to money. It’s stretching me, inside and out. Sound familiar? Then check out these 5 Ways I’ve been reframing my relationship with money. Total lifesavers!

1)  Lead with the Impact

In her recent book Sacred Success, Barbara Stanny warns: “Tell a woman she can substantially increase her income, and she may get excited about the possibility, but not enough to stretch beyond her comfort zone, a prerequisite for financial success.”

Don’t let money be your driving force. When I started to raise money, I was so focused on making sure that my potential investors got a return on their investment that I spent too much time on the numbers and too little time communicating the impact we were having in women’s lives.

The excessive focus on the money aspect of my business began to consume my thoughts and I started to lose my “juice.” Once I started to lead with my “why,” to help women actualize themselves in business and as leaders, I attracted more aligned investors and supporters that shared my mission, and I started to get real traction. But more importantly, I felt more energized and resilient, even in the face of “no.”

2)  Do the Math!

Now that you have your priorities straight, it’s time to make friends with Excel. If I had a dime for every woman that has said “I suck at math!” I would be a rich lady. I am guilty of this myself – even with an MBA, I dreaded building my own financial statements as an executive and now still as an entrepreneur.

You cannot be successful in business if you don’t know your numbers inside and out. This is not to say that you should do everything  yourself: if math isn’t your super power, hire a financial management company that can do your bookkeeping (because who has time?). More importantly, they can do financial modeling and projections for you (key if you are growing or scaling).

The important thing is that you understand your costs and expenses, and where your revenue is coming from. If you don’t know your numbers, the chances of reaching  your goals are practically nil.

Understanding the economics of your business and the different scenarios that could play out are essential for forecasting viability, profitability and cash flow. You can’t reach what you can’t see, sisters, so roll up your sleeves and dive in. It’s not as bad as you think, and the confidence you gain from the visibility is invaluable.

3)  Alignment is King (and Queen)

This is a discipline. If your soul desires and your financial goals are not in line with one another, success will not be fulfilling or sustainable. If you are looking for investors, partners, clients or customers, remember that you are also investigating the right fit for your business. If you take on a customer or partner because they have deep pockets, but they are not aligned with the depth of your purpose, they will cause you pain, and cash, in the long run.

“If your soul desires and your financial goals are not in line with one another, success will not be fulfilling or sustainable.”

When possible, make sure you have enough runway so you can be selective and discriminating when aligning with your cash sources – these are the people can help to shape your brand and multiply your revenue efforts, but only if you want the same things!

4)  Keep an Abundant Mindset

This one is tricky, because often times when we are dealing with money, there is fear – fear that we don’t have enough or, conversely, that we will lose the money we have thus far. As women I think what we fear the most is that we will end up “bag ladies” on the streets without support or resources.

When we manage our money from a place of fear, we are less likely to take risks that could lead to wonderful opportunities and success, or we stay small in our aspirations and don’t allow for a more expanded vision of what we can do.

Here’s a little practice I do when I start to feel the walls of fear shrink my feeling of what’s possible:

Find a spot in nature with an amazing view – the top of a mountain, overlooking a vast body of water, anything that shows you the abundance and richness that surrounds us on earth. If you have limited access to nature, call up an inspiring place in your mind. Breathe deeply, take in the view, and align your thoughts with the vastness of the beauty, power, and abundance before you. This is a part of you, just as it’s a part of the earth. Own it.

5)  Spend Time with People You Admire

Notice that I didn’t say spend time with other financially successful people. My husband and I have a wide variety of people in our community, and while some are wildly successful by traditional standards, many are successful in other ways: they have lots of close connections, they spend time outdoors, they create art, cook, and relish their lives.

Surrounding myself with people I admire, in business and in my personal life, has inspired me to be my best – not do the most – because I naturally want to emulate what I admire. When I come from this place, the money always follows.

*If you are an accredited investor and want to be a part of Emerging Women, please mail us directly at [email protected]

How’s the Money Thing Going for You? #emergingnow

by Chantal Pierrat

Dear Emerging Women,

Ah, money. Money, money, money, money (…..money)!

These days, I can’t keep the refrain from the O’Jays song out of my head. To be completely transparent, we have big plans for the growth of Emerging Women, and in order to reach our goals, we need capital. Money, honey.

So we’re in the middle of the grueling process of raising seed money to create the next level of Emerging Women. If you’ve done this for your business, you know: it’s a full-time job that consumes your entire mental space – even when you sleep. I’m constantly honing our pitch deck, three different versions of a “compelling-yet-super-brief” presentation which I share in as little time as possible to as many qualified investors as I can get in front of.

I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur before I even knew what kind of company I wanted to build. About a year before telling my mentor and boss that I was ready to leave my cushy full-time job as a successful publishing executive, I started emerging – creativity and ideas started sprouting in my brain a mile a minute, and I felt restless and powerful at the same time. I had endless energy and drive, even though I was a working mom with two kids under four. I was scared, but more of the “how” than the “what” or the “why.”

How would I make enough money to continue the lifestyle I had created with my husband as a two-income household? How would I find a mentor once I left the fertile business learning environment of an established company? How would I create a profitable business while juggling motherhood and marriage? And most importantly – how would I fund this dream?

Ironically, all of these questions led me to create the business itself, Emerging Women. I wanted a support network of powerful women dedicated to creating a new version of success that takes into account the specific “how” challenges that women in business face. And BY FAR my greatest challenge has been access to capital.

When I started the raise last September, I felt confident and excited – with an impact-oriented business supporting women’s leadership in the world, who could say no?

Then I learn that though the total investment in female-led companies has tripled since 2000, “85 percent of all venture capital–funded businesses have no women on the executive team,” according to Babson College researchers. Even more astonishing: “…only 2.7 percent of venture capital-funded companies had a woman CEO.” What the what?!

I know we have a brilliant idea that fills a real need in the world, so I’m crazy eager to have enough money to hire more people, launch new products, take risks, make mistakes. That’s how businesses move from simply surviving to soaring, and scaling. When I look at the powerful women in our tribe, I know we will make it happen.

Until then, I’ll just keep being grateful for my thick skin, because every “yes” I receive comes with at least a dozen “mehs.”

I have refined and honed my pitch (am I on version 37 now?) to the point where I can say it backwards. And while I am not done with the full raise, the lessons I have learned along the way have completely re-shaped my relationship to money.

Want to redefine your relationship with money before a big raise?

Check out these 5 Ways to start setting yourself up for a life of alignment, abundance and impact.

I’d love to hear where you’re at with the whole money thing, too. How are you funding your dreams? Share your smarts with the tribe in the comments section.

Big Love,

Chantal Pierrat

Founder, Emerging Women

*If you are an accredited investor and want to be a part of Emerging Women, please mail us directly at [email protected]

More from Emerging Women this week:

Barbara Stanny – Sacred Success: A Woman’s Guide to Authentic Power & Affluence

 5 Ways to Reshape Your Relationship with Money

Juicy Bites: Black History is American History

Super Early Bird Tickets available for a limited time for EW Live 2015 in San Francisco!

How are you funding your dreams? Share your smarts with the tribe in the comment section.