A Preview of Build Your Money Muscles with Joan Sotkin

A summary of things you should know about Build Your Money Muscles according to Joan Sotkin:

Introduction

In this episode Joan Sotkin takes a deep dive into her book, Build Your Money Muscles, where she shares 9 simple exercises for improving your relationship with money.

In her book Sotkin provides a common sense, step-by-step guide that will create an achievable pathway to financial security and prosperity through personal growth rather than quick fixes. The goal of the book is to help you build a secure financial base, understand why you are struggling with money, manage money more healthfully, and climb out of any financial slump.

This book is perfect for entrepreneurs who have a hard time managing personal finances and want a natural approach to becoming financially happy with their money.

The Book’s Unique Quality (2:18)

There is nothing quite like it because of the depth that I go in to about emotions and money. It’s very practically and really helps you get in touch with yourself and not just your money.

The Best Way To Engage (2:55)

It’s good to read straight through and then go back as you feel needed.

The Reader’s Takeaway (10:47)

I like the idea that your emotions are behind your behaviors and to understand that there are no good or bad emotions. They are just emotions and habits and whatever those habits are they can change.

A Deep Dive Into The Book (3:56)

If you read the book and do the exercises I can promise you that your ideas about money and yourself are going to change and improve because your money is really an extension of who you are. If you want to change your money there is an awful lot that has to change internally.
The book is structures in to two parts. The first is preparation for financial change and the second part is working towards a new financial identity. You can’t just dive in and expect to change your life very quickly and dramatically and not have resistance.

Exercise one is conditioning yourself for change and the idea is to be able to recognize the discomfort that comes with change so you don’t give up and walk backwards. Then there is developing financial awareness which is about overcoming financial vagueness syndrome. The idea is to become more financially aware and not to be afraid at looking at your numbers. Exercise three is identifying financial patterns and underlying emotional themes. There is a chart in that exercise which outlines what I call the five main feelings that people act out through their money. These five feelings are anger, shame, deprivation, aloneness, and a since of being trapped. So the chart shows you what you are probably feeling underneath the behaviors because the theory in the book is that you create your life stories with emotions as the creative force. So by understanding your emotions you can understand your behaviors and you don’t have to have a good emotional vocabulary in order to do what I talk about in the book. The fourth exercise is setting attainable goals. A lot of people will set goals that are so far beyond what the position they are in now and it paralyzes them and they wind up doing nothing.

In the second part, which is the healing part, exercise five is replacing unproductive financial thoughts. This helps you look at the voices you hear in your head and what you believe about money. Exercise six is adopting functional financial beliefs. There is a great chart in this chapter where it shows the beliefs that are holding you back and ones that are going to work instead. Exercise seven is cultivating healthy money feelings. Once you learn to recognize these feelings that are behind your money you need to learn what to do to change the programing in your brain. Exercise eight is establishing responsible behaviors and includes how you have to adapt to these behaviors. The final exercise is improving your relationship with yourself and others which is about connecting and learning to trust yourself.
NOTE: That was just a summary. To get the full deep dive, play the audio clip at 03:56

Notable Quotes From The Book (11:32)

“Money represents the energy of relationship and the way individuals handle money reflects how they deal with their relationships with themselves and others.” – Joan Sotkin

The Credibility/Inspiration Of The Author (0:36)

I started out in life on the lower end, I had two very successful brothers and I could barely make it. I was sick emotionally, financially, and it’s been a journey. I love to share what I’ve learned along the way and I’ve been on the internet since 1995 doing just that.

I really like sharing what I learned and I saw that a lot of financial books were either heavy on the mindset piece or they were very hardcore how to count your money and handle cash flow books. I wanted something that combined both because that’s what I saw had to be done.

Other Books Recommended By The Author (13:14)

Be Here Now by Ram Dass
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

More Information About This Book and The Author

Buy Build Your Money Muscles by Joan Sotkin on Amazon today
Visit ProsperityPlace.com to learn more about Joan and her podcast
Follow Joan Sotkin on Facebook and Twitter

More Information About This Episode

Download the full transcript here (coming soon)
Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud

Related books:

The Financially Savvy Entrepreneur by Emily Chase Smith
Live Richer Challenge by Tiffany Aliche
From Worry to Wealthy by Chellie Campbell

Relevant advice and tips:

5 Personal Wealth Management Tips For Financial Stability

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Wade Danielson

Wade is a 4-time serial entrepreneur and is the Founder/Host of The Entrepreneurs Library. With a long time passion for reading books, Wade created an online resource and podcast for entrepreneurs who love to read personal and business development books. His long-term goal in life is to start an entrepreneurial home schooling program for children of business-minded families.