Barbara Huson: Money and Power
As entrepreneurs, most of us have had times when cash was tight. But, as Barbara Huson asks, what if you could see that wealth isn’t a number? Instead, what if this money-savvy and credentialed authority on women, wealth, and power could show you that a wealth mindset and wealth don’t come from what you earn – but rather from what you do with what you earn?
I recently interviewed Barbara Huson, formerly Barbara Stanny, the speaker, coach, and author of Prince Charming Isn’t Coming, Secrets of Six Figure Women, and (my personal favorite) Sacred Success.
“The inner work means looking at the beliefs I had about myself and money, the early decisions I made. It wasn’t until I could reveal those—and I did that through counseling—that I realized, this is what was holding me back. That’s when I realized that financial success is a three-pronged process. It’s the outer work, which is the practical, the inner work, which is the psychological emotional, and it’s the higher work, the spiritual which is that we’re all on this planet for a reason, and we can’t possibly, possibly pursue our purpose and play it full out if we’re living in dread, or struggling to make ends meet.”
A wealth mindset requires 7 life-changing realizations
After being positively blindsided by her then-husband’s out-of-control gambling addictions, Barbara’s life changed instantly. Unfortunately, it still took her several years to admit it. When she was forced to make some huge adjustments to keep herself and her children afloat (and divorced her husband, who refused to come to terms with his addiction and the impact it had on their family), Barbara went for it.
And, thanks to some positively amazing coincidences that Barbara credits to The Universe’s intervention, Barbara finally learned how to manage money by interviewing a series of powerful, successful, and wealthy women. And that’s when she realized that a wealthy mindset isn’t just a quick paradigm shift: it’s a series of 7 life-changing realizations that impact every decision you’ll make.
She details each of those realizations in her book, “Prince Charming Isn’t Coming: How Women Get Smart About Money.” These realizations include that no one is coming to save you, you don’t have to do it alone, and all of the answers you’re looking for aren’t “out there” – they’re inside you. And once we come to terms with those 7 realizations, we can start on the three-pronged process to real financial success and wealth.
The 3-pronged process to find financial success
Barbara, through extensive research, counseling, and continued interviews, realized that financial success has three equally important aspects. The first is the outer or practical work. It’s what you do. The second is the inner or psychological and emotional work. It’s changing our thinking and embracing our power. Think of it this way: we’re all hard wired to want to be liked and loved. But oftentimes, that comes at the cost of our power. But if we can relinquish that desire to be liked by everyone all the time, we can instead be respected, empowered, and successful. The final third is the spiritual work. But we can’t pursue our purpose or play out our destiny if we’re dreading our financial state or struggling to make ends meet.
After going through the process herself, Barbara realized she went through all of those trials so that she could fulfill her higher calling: to empower women financially. Thanks to her numerous books, seminars, coaching, and other programs, she’s doing just that – empowering women to take control and reach financial success.
Connect with Barbara
- Check out her website at: Barbara-Huson.com
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Accelerate lasting success through harmony of mind, body, soul, and business
Transcript
Barbara Huson Description:
Barbara Huson, formerly Barbara Stanny, has been a friend of mine, we have the same business coach and I am just blown away by this woman, I mean really, she is so brilliant and she is one of my most favorite people. I feel so incredibly lucky to call her my friend and to be able to bring you her wisdom. She’s just amazing.
She is the leading authority on Women, Wealth, and Power. She does a lot of work with women around money, and really taking control, and stepping into their power. Money is really kind of that presenting some time in what we’re doing with it, says a lot about our comfort or our lack of comfort, with being in control and stepping into our power.
Some of the things that she shares with us is that wealth does not come from what you earn, it comes from what you do with what you earn, which was super powerful to me because I thought, “If I don’t make lots of extra money, I’m never going to have wealth—” Hmm, not true. She talks about doing the inner, the outer, and the higher work of working with money, that is, practical, emotional, and spiritual. Her programs and her books address those different pieces when it comes to managing your money.
Then we talk also about how when you’re ready to make a change and you’re priding it out to the universe, the universe is going to start to present you with opportunities and coincidences and it is your job to leverage those. As you can tell, this conversation was super meaningful, it just was so amazing and deep conversation about not just money and the practical matters of finding a great financial planner versus a great financial advisor, which we talk about, but also what it is within ourselves that makes us believe that we can’t handle money, don’t deserve to have money, don’t know what to do with money, become unattractive or unappealing to life partners if we are that powerful. It was really an amazing conversation.
JM: Hi, Barbara. How are you?
BH: Yeah, I’m great. It’s so good to be here, thank you.
JM: I am so excited to talk to you. You are honestly, legitimately, one of my most favorite human beings on the planet earth.
BH: The feeling is mutual.
JM: Oh, thank you.
BH: And you make me feel so good. Thank you.
JM: I’m super, super excited to talk with you. Thank you for your time today. Tell everybody listening a little bit about what you do. You are the leading authority on Women, Wealth, and Power. Tell us what you do.
BH: I would say, to boil it down, I am a wealth coach. I work exclusively with women. I do seminars, workshops, teleclasses, and coaching, and I write books. Let me tell you how I got into this because this is not a normal way to get into this kind of work.
JM: I would expect nothing different from you.
BH: I grew up wealthy. My father was the R of H&R Block. The only advice he ever gave me about money was, “Don’t worry,” which I thought was great advice. I didn’t want to worry, I just went to spend it. Then I married a man who was a lawyer, he went to work for Block, and then he became a stockbroker. He’s perfect. But very early in our marriage, I found out, he was a compulsive gambler.
JM: Oh, my God. How did you find that out?
BH: Do you want to hear the story of how I find it out?
JM: Yes, please.
BH: I was working at that time as a career counselor. I had my own business, the Career Management Center in Kansas City. I came home late one night, and I walked in the house, and my mother, my father, and my husband were sitting there very serious like you could slice the tension with a knife.
JM: And you were not expecting to see your parents there with him?
BH: Not at 8:30 at night, no.
JM: Oh, boy. So something’s up.
BH: You could just feel the tension. My father says, “Sit down, Barbara. We have to talk.” I just had my second baby, we were looking for a house, found one, turns out my husband went to my father, asked for a loan because he had been gambling away all the money from my inheritance.
JM: Oh, my God.
BH: And my father was furious rightly so. He said, “Do you know that your husband has lost almost all your money?” I was so shocked, Jenn. I was so shocked.
JM: You had no idea?
BH: None.
JM: Oh, my God.
BH: So shocked, I just said, “Yes, I know,” because I was too embarrassed and too humiliated.
JM: So you lied to defend him?
BH: No. To defend me. I was in denial. I did not want to break that denial. I said, “Yes, I knew.” After my parents left, my husband said, “I promise I’ll never do that again.” If you’ve ever been with an addict, you know those words mean nothing. Finally after 15 years, we got a divorce and I decided, “I don’t want to deal with money. Just money’s not my thing.”
JM: Had you dealt with his gambling for the full 15 years? Was that just like an ongoing battle until you finally said, “I can’t do this anymore?”
BH: To tell you how really dysfunctional I was, there was no battle. I find out all the time he was gambling and I’d tell, “You don’t do that.” He’d say, “I never will,” again, and I let him manage all the money.
JM: Oh, my God. Was that ever in the back of your mind like were you ever afraid that he was going through all your money or had that just not occurred to you?
BH: I knew he was going through all my money. I knew it. But I didn’t want to deal with it. I just don’t know if you understand denial because he was the addict but I was the co-addict, I was the codependent, I was in denial because I did not want to face reality. I did not think I could raise my children alone. I knew it. I was terrified and intimidated by money, I knew I couldn’t handle it, and I could not live on my own.
JM: This was your inheritance that he was gambling away?
BH: It’s my inheritance. Basically I didn’t think about it until I finally got divorced, I decided I still don’t want to think about it. Then I got a tax bill for over a million dollars for back taxes he didn’t pay, the illegal deals he got us in, and my signature was on everything. I didn’t have a million dollars, not even close to it. My ex had left the country and my father wouldn’t lend me the money. That’s the moment I came out of denial.
JM: Hold on, how did you find out that you owed a million dollars and back taxes?
BH: I got a letter first from the IRS, that was for $500,000 and some. Then I was calling my father, oh, this story is so sad, I call my father and he said, “Oh, don’t worry about it, that’s to your access, not to you don’t worry about it.” I just put it in the pile of stuff that I would take to my accountant later. When my accountant saw it, his face went white, he says, “You got to deal with this.” Meanwhile, I got another one for over $800,000, and my father wouldn’t lend me the money. I had three daughters by then. I wasn’t going to raise them on the street, so I knew I had to get smart.
JM: Now your husband is gone. So he did the damage, the damage is done, and he has disappeared.
BH: Right.
JM: What did you do?
BH: I didn’t know what to do. I took classes, I read books, but my eyes would glaze over, my brain would fog up. But I believe, Jenn, I believe when you make a commitment like a down-to-your-toes commitment, to help you reach your goal. I knew I was not going to raise my girls on the street, I wasn’t talking to my parents, I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I was really clear this was not working for me. But I was a journalist riding through the San Francisco Business Times. I got hired for a research project to interview women who were smart with money.
JM: Was that a coincidence or did you set out to do that? Were you looking for that kind of project?
BH: No. My belief is that when you are really committed like a down to your toes, no back door, coincidences will occur. Your job is to take advantage of them. I pounced on that and I started interviewing women who were smart with money. I not only learned from them, I got smart about my money. But then I wrote my first book, Prince Charming Isn’t Coming: How Women Get Smart About Money, which came out 21 years ago and it’s still selling great today.
JM: That’s amazing.
BH: Then I went on to write Secrets Of Six-Figure Women, because I figured out how to manage money but now I wonder when I earn it—so I started making six figures before I even finished interviewing.
JM: How did that happen? Tell us a little bit about that journey. You had this crazy tax bill, which I think you said, did you go on to settle that with the IRS?
BH: What happened is yes. This is part of the story. My lawyers pleaded. One day I said, they need this letter from my ex-husband to substantiate to it that I did not know anything about what was going on. I asked my husband, my ex, “If you would write this letter, letting them know I really didn’t know what I was doing,” and they couldn’t touch him because he was in a foreign country. He will, he used to be a lawyer so he were to legal brief to the judge saying, “I was a daughter of H&R Block. I know exactly what was going on and I knew everything and I was complicit in all of this.”
My lawyers, thank you, God, got that tax go down to wear. If I sold everything left in my trust, I could pay it, I mean, it was miniscule compared to what the million something it was. But I knew if I didn’t get smart, there’ll be more tax bills. Because what happened is I had three properties left that turned out enough income that if I lived frugally, I could survive. But I knew I’d lose those properties if I didn’t get smart. That’s when I got hired to write that. It was interviewing these women, what I saw, I think that made the biggest difference—and I see this with high earners too—it’s not so much what they did, it’s how they fought, and when I shifted my thinking, everything changed.
JM: Oh, that’s good. Tell us more about that.
BH: In my book, Prince Charming Isn’t Coming, I have seven realizations. I saw each of these women who were smart than no one that pops out of the room knowing how to manage money. For some of us it’s easier than others. But each woman who got smart, especially if it wasn’t natural to them, they had a series of realizations, aha, epiphanies, whatever. There are seven realizations at all. I think the most important realization for me—there were several—but the most important realization was, prince charming isn’t coming, no one is going to do this for me.
JM: No one’s going to rescue us.
BH: That’s right. And this was huge, because I was raised that is the man’s job but to make him manage money. I didn’t think I could do it. But after hearing from these women, I had to make that shift in my consciousness, it was up to me. But the second realization is, no one will do this for me, but I don’t have to do it alone.
JM: Oh, it’s great.
BH: It really reached out, I got a lot of help, I started going to support groups, I started talking to financial professionals. And the third, the third realization was that all the answers aren’t out there, I kept doing the other work, finding the difference between a stock and a bond. But what I didn’t realize is I had to address the inner work.
The inner work means looking at the beliefs I had about myself and money, the early decisions I made. It wasn’t until I could reveal those—and I did that through counseling—that I realized, this is what was holding me back. That’s when I realized that financial success is a three-pronged process. It’s the outer work, which is the practical, the inner work, which is the psychological emotional, and it’s the higher work, the spiritual which is that we’re all on this planet for a reason, and we can’t possibly, possibly pursue our purpose and play it full out if we’re living in dread, or struggling to make ends meet.
JM: That’s amazing. What incredible realizations you had?
BH: Oh, I believe that God gave me my parents—and my husband, who I’ve since thanked—this is what I was supposed to do and I knew right away that this was my mission, I want to empower women financially.
JM: This was your catalyst.
BH: It is.
JM: Tell us a little bit. You have spent your entire career since then working with women to help them understand money and you and I are friends and so we have had lots and lots of conversations both for my own personal benefit, and just some of the work we do, and some of the things that we see uncommon with our clients. But one of the things that you talk about is how money is just a presenting symptom, it’s just kind of something that you see that is happening for somebody but it’s not the underlying root cause. What are some of those presenting symptoms that you see with your clients when they come to you, some of the issues that they’re experiencing, and you think, “Aha, this person needs to kind of go through some of those realizations that you talked about?”
BH: Whenever there’s a problem, problem with money, any problem. The problem is never money, it is never money. It’s something deeper, underneath. For example, here I was where my husband was gambling, I couldn’t figure it out, I couldn’t handle him, I couldn’t understand money, my eyes would glaze over, it wasn’t until I did the deeper work that I saw my avoidance of money was simply my deep-seated belief that women couldn’t manage money, that I make a mistake and blow it, and my biggest surprise was I thought if I got smart about money, no man would love me.
JM: Wow.
BH: It was blowing those myths, those lies I had been telling myself, really blowing them up, and replacing them with I can, I will, I am, that I was able to move forward.
JM: That is incredible. How do you make the foreword progress from feeling like no man can love you if you became so powerful. Because I think what I’m hearing is to become the type of person who can control, manage, and grow wealth, you would become very powerful and somehow unlovable or unappealing to men, how do you get passed that?
BH: First of all, I realized when I wrote my first book, Prince Charming Isn’t Coming, I realized very early on that women’s issues with money, their difficulties with money, has nothing to do with money, it has everything to do with their fear of or ambivalence about power. I remember talking to a psychologist when I was writing my first book 22 years ago, she specializes in money, I said to her, “Why are women so afraid of their power?” She said something that just gave me full body chill, she said, “Because powerful women had been burned to the state.” I think it is part of our collective unconscious that if we become powerful—I’ll define what that means in a minute—if we become powerful, we will somehow be punished, or there will be catastrophic consequences. I define a powerful woman as someone who knows who she is, who knows what she wants, and expresses that in the world unapologetically. What happens is most of us, we water ourselves down, we dim our lights, we shrink to fit, so we don’t make waves.
JM: Just blending with the background.
BH: We don’t speak up and ask for what we want. We don’t say no to what we don’t want because we’re so afraid of people not liking us. I have yet to interview a successful, savvy woman who hasn’t said to me deep down, there is a little girl inside that just wants to be liked. Women are like that. But in the world where I found the women who were the most successful had a shift in their consciousness, they said, “I’d rather be respected than liked.”
JM: Wow, that’s so powerful.
BH: Now they all had what I called, not them, I called their loveness, they all had the people, they could had a little break downs and freak outs with. They kick law firm. But in the world where they were trying to achieve and succeed, whether they were being paid or volunteering, I’d rather be respected than liked was really a watershed moment for me when I realized that.
JM: That is huge. Unfortunately, it doesn’t just happen with our primary relationships with our spouses and our partners but we do it to each other. I see it all the time where we women will project and tear each other down. It was interesting because you and I had a conversation earlier about some of the things that you heard throughout your career where people would make comments to you like, “Oh, she’s rich. She has no problems,” and how often times, we trigger things and people the things that they see in themselves, or cannot confront in themselves, and no wonder we have to make a realization to make the move from wanting to be liked to being respected, women do it to each other too.
BH: It’s like we all do it to each other, it’s not that women do it women, no, men, do it to men, we do it to each other because what happens is when there’s part of ourselves that we don’t like, we kind of push it down, or we’re not happy with, and we project it onto others and we get upset with them. This took me a long time to realize because I’m am like a lot of other women, I want to be liked, and when people don’t like me, it upsets me. But I realized that they don’t like me because I trigger something in them and it’s not about me. I try to help my kids understand that, I think they’re getting it.
JM: It takes time. It’s human nature, it takes time. Tell me then, we have an audience of women entrepreneurs, what are some of your top tips for women who are really starting, you taught me this, I always thought that I had to have lots of extra money to be able to invest and to start to grow wealth, you have shared with me that really you just have to be able to meet your needs and have a little bit left over to start making some smart decisions, what are some of your top tips for somebody who is really just starting to accumulate a little bit of wealth and they want to grow it?
BH: Wealth does not come from what you earn. Wealth comes from what you do with what you earn. What I noticed when I was interviewing high earners who make six, seven, and eight figures, what surprised me is how few of them were wealthy. They were so busy making money that they weren’t taking time to manage it, I called it the illusion of affluence, they had money coming in, but they weren’t taking care of it.
Wealth comes from putting at least some of your money in assets, in places, that will grow faster, that inflation and taxes can’t take it away. If all your money is in cash which right now maybe is about 1%, that inflation is about 2% normally, normally inflation is 3%, overtime, you’re going to lose that money. That money is going to be like putting a wool sweater in a hot dryer, it’s going to shrink, and your purchasing power is going to shrink. But you put it in stocks, or bonds, or real estate, and those asset that grow faster than inflation and taxes, that’s how you create wealth.
JM: How do you find somebody who can give you that kind of advice? For me, growing up, we did not have wealth, we did not have extra money at the end of the month, that was not something that was ever wisdom that was imparted to me. My husband and I grew our businesses.
Let’s say, in 2009, I think our household adjusted gross income was under $10,000. That was the year that our son had a brain tumor, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, he started a career in real estate like just before the economy tanked. We really, we started from zero, we started from nothing and have had to even negative, we went to dead, truth be told, we have had to climb our way out of that and start making some decisions.
Everybody doesn’t have access to a Barbara Huson, doesn’t have this incredible find with all of this information, so what would you suggest for somebody who says like, “Okay, yes, I’m finally at a place where I have a little bit left over every month, there are a lot of people that want to sell a lot of products, they want to sell you insurance, they want to give you different kinds of advice, how would you suggest finding somebody who’s truly a great guide for what to do with your money?
BH: I’m a big believer in working with financial professionals. In fact, the women that I’ve interviewed, the ones that were wealthy didn’t necessarily have the highest income, but they all worked with financial professionals, a team of financial professionals, at least for a period of time. I think that is really critical. But I always say financial professionals make lousy prince charmings. It’s really important to educate yourself.
Let me give you three steps that you can take because so much are getting smart or smarter with money, is to take small steps consistently taken. What I would suggest, is you educate yourself, interview three financial advisers or financial planners—we can talk about the difference—and then pick one. But you must, must, educate yourself too.
The way that I did it, and the way I suggest others do it, is everyday, read something about money, even if it’s just for one or two minutes, even if you’re just perusing the headlines of the business section of a newspaper. Because so much of getting smart or smarter is just familiarizing ourselves with the jargon and the current trends. It just has to be a minute. You just have to put through money magazine at the market instead of going through people, perusing with headlines, at the end of the day, open up a finance book and read a paragraph or a couple of sentences, you’ll be amazed.
JM: And just shifting that focus.
BH: Small steps consistently take a great remarkable result. So everyday read, every week, talk, have a conversation about money with someone who knows more than you. I think it is our secrecy and silence that keep women stuck, we don’t talk about money, we’ll complain about it. When was the last time you sat down with a friend or a colleague, they were smart, and said, “How did you get smart? What would you suggest for me? What books did you read? What did you do? How do you invest? What are some of the mistakes you made?” So everyday, read, every week, talk, and every month, save, automatically have just a little bit transfer from your paycheck or your checking account to a savings account. You do these three steps for three, four months, you will be amazed, amazed at how by as Moses, you pick so much up.
JM: Right, and the difference that it will start to make on your journey, just be active getting started.
BH: I work with financial advisers, every woman that I have interviewed does, but what scares is when women don’t do their due diligence, and I suggest interviewing three, and in the background of my books, and many of them have questions to ask a financial adviser, because we don’t do your due diligence, there’s a lot of that apples in that pot, but there are some great and your job is to find it.
JM: What’s the difference between a financial adviser and a financial planner?
BH: That’s as really important. I suggest everyone needs to go to have a financial plan done, every time they are in a transition, every time they have a [PB 00:26:07], they get divorced, they get remarried, they they lose a job.
JM: If something big changes.
BH: Financial planner, a fee-only financial planner does not sell products, will not take commission or charge a fee for putting your money in investments. A financial planner will simply do a plan for you, will look at what your situation is now, what your goals are for the future, and how you can get from where you are now to where you need to be.
JM: I will say for us personally, that was probably one of the most eye-opening experiences, was to work with a financial planner. Let me tell you, they tell you some things you also don’t want to know, “We’re looking at how much money you need for retirement and how long could you potentially last? Do you want to continue to live the way that you are living during the time that you are in heyday and at the peak of your earning?” And looking at how long it takes to pay things off, paying off your home, or saving for a second home. Those are some of the goals that we have, our long term plan is to have a second home in Seattle.
Having somebody take everything into account, but it’s amazing because at the end even though you know things are going to shift, and change, and is very fluid—your circumstances and things that come up and happen are very fluid—but to have somebody say, “Great,” based on your priorities and current situation and where you want to be in X number of years, this is what we suggest you start doing, it was amazing, life changing, like really. It forces you out of that, I think I like to just be in confusion about things that I don’t want to deal with. It’s like, “Oh, I don’t know how much we need to put away, I don’t know what we need to be doing with us, I don’t have time to deal with this.” But then to sit down and actually see the numbers, you really do it suddenly, it doesn’t feel like deprivation anymore to say, “I don’t need to go get a latte every single day because I’d rather be doing this over here.” That clarity is golden.
BH: That’s a beautiful example. I’m so glad you said that. If anybody said, “Where do I start getting my financial act together?” It is you get out of vagueness and indeclarity. One of the best ways to do that is to talk to a financial planner like you did. Another way is to simply write down, pick a little notebook and write down everything you spend everyday. This is so informative, you have no idea. Because it’s our vagueness that keeps us in financial chaos. But when you can see what you spend then you could start making different decisions.
JM: It’s so funny, I feel so resistant to that thought and obviously it’s like the resistance is where you need to go, not paying attention to it gives you this permission to just spend without thinking. It’s interesting, I think the more resistant you are to that, probably the better an exercise it is for you, for me, it’s not just the universal you, for me.
BH: Exactly. What it is is clarity is power. What’s really underneath it all is what you and so many women, including me, get scared of is feeling and being powerful. Because when you get and take charge of your money, you really take charge of your life in subtle and fugue ways.
JM: I love that. I can totally say, I’m just taking that bottom because I can completely see it, you realize that small things add up and then it’s not just about the change, the dollars, or the money, it’s all those times that you aren’t holding boundaries and it’s all those times that you aren’t asserting yourself.
BH: Exactly.
JM: I completely see that.
BH: Writing down your spending, tracking your spending for at least four, or five, six months, it’s a consciousness reading exercise. You learn a lot about yourself. When I first did this, and I resisted it for months, when I had a financial coach, Karen McCall, who told me to do this, I resisted from months, and months, and months. I didn’t want to do it. But what I saw is not only, oh, my God, I’m not a really bad spender, but I saw where I was depriving myself, my exercise clothes had holes in them, my couch had holes in it, I wasn’t spending in ways that were depriving me and I was spending in ways that weren’t fulfilling me.
JM: Wow. That’s interesting. Do you feel like, as a result of that, you’ve changed your spending patterns then?
BH: Oh yeah. That was like 30 years ago. Right now, I have a set point, I know when I’m overspending, I just know it, and I just stop, I don’t even have to think about it.
JM: Right. And you got new workout clothes?
BH: I do, I really need new ones, as a matter of fact, I’m wearing them now, I’m looking at it, “Oh, shit, I need new ones.”
JM: It’s time again. Thank you so much for your time. Tell us your website because I know that after people listen to this interview, they’re going to want to find out more about you and your programs, it’s barbara-huson.com.
BH: I always like you to go for the hh, but when hyphen use your barbara-huson.com.
JM: Perfect.
BH: There’s just a lot of good stuff on there. I’m offering a couple of programs. I cut back this year because I’m writing another book. But I am offering a mentorship program and a special VIP day. I really want to get women who are out of survival, who have some form of stability but to really help them step to being a powerfully affluent woman who makes a difference in the world.
JM: I love it. Those two programs are designed for that outcome?
BH: Yes.
JM: You mentioned you’re writing a book. Tell us a little bit about that.
BH: I created a whole new process that I think expedites the whole process of getting smart or smarter about money, about really stepping into your power, creating wealth, and overcoming all those obstacles internally and externally. Because what I noticed is that my biggest challenge as a coach is just getting women past their resistance. I had taken psychology and spirituality and blended it with neural science and personal finance to help get women past their resistance weekly, launch them into that new level that they were to go.
JM: That is brilliant. I don’t know anybody else that’s doing this. Is anybody else doing that?
BH: Probably, but I don’t know.
JM: That’s incredible. The neural science is so interesting to me. Can you tell us a little bit about what neural science is, that part that the role that that plays?
BH: Our brain controls everything we do, inhaling, exhaling, spending, saving, everything. Wealth is a result of our habits, and our habits come through the way our brain is wired. And our wire often starts when we’re very, very young. If you will waste that money is bad, or that with the concept, “Oh, I’m poor, I can never have more money.” All these are wired in your brain, so it’s going to knock to just shift your thinking. Because every time you have a thought, you produce chemicals that go to neurons or brain cells, that create neural pathways, that’s just my brief way of saying, harder the work is creating new neural pathways weakening the old ones, it’s the new ones to create new habits and new ways of seeing yourself.
JM: Having those different thoughts are not enough but continuing to have them overtime, so it’s just like when you keep having those negative thought patterns and that become stronger, you have to shift that.
BH: The neural pathways suck you in, the old ways of thinking suck you in like a gravity. It’s really hard to rewire but when you understand how that works, you can understand how that overcome the resistance in a much quicker way, it doesn’t take a lot of time to rewire the brain to change your habits if you understand it.
JM: I cannot wait for this book. Thank you so much, Barbara. I appreciate your time and your brilliance, you’re amazing.
BH: Thank you, I love talking to you always, Jenn.
JM: Oh, likewise, you’re the greatest. I could do this all the time, I’m going to have you on again.
BH: Okay.
JM: Alright, we will talk to you soon. Once again, it is barbara-huson.com to learn about Barbara’s programs and her books which are amazing—Secret Success, just a little shout out, that is one of my all time favorite books and then this new one that’s coming up, I can’t wait to see it.
BH: Me too.
JM: Thank you, Barbara. I’ll talk to you soon.