PP 592: Find Your Value; Design a New You with Kelly McCausey

“Whoever you’ve been up to now is no sign of who you may be tomorrow… You can create a new you tomorrow; you can begin designing that new person right now. We are living, breathing beings. And that’s what we get to do.” –Kelly McCausey

 

Protect your value; protect your money. If you’re earning less than your value, today’s podcast is for you. There’s no way you’re heading to success with a lousy disposition. Invest in your worth. That way you will be able to protect what you have. Kelly McCausey shares practical advice on how to get out of poverty mindset from her own journey of redesigning herself.

 

HIGHLIGHTS

02:01 Doing Online Business in the Pre-Facebook Era
10:24 Undervaluing Myself
18:03 Keeping Track of Your Accounts
26:35 Protect Your Money
33:36 Proving a Poverty Mindset
42:23 Exposure and Profit with Kelly
46:32 Design a New You

Quit working so hard while earning less than you deserve. Find your innate value with @thekimsutton and @kellymccausey #povertymindset #prefacebookera #protectyourmoney #accounts #value # #self-worthClick To Tweet

About Kelly McCausey:

 

Starting a business or any endeavour with a schlocky mindset is another term to describe Kelly’s past. Kelly McCausey was in a dire situation by the time she started doing business. She was a single mom with a load of bills to pay. But, she was able to move from working just to pay the never ending bills to finding her value as a person and as an entrepreneur. When she did, her success story followed. From a business lost, she is now a Business Coach helping entrepreneurs in content marketing and community building. She is also an Event Host for Exposure and Profit. Her story is evidence that there is no value in your work without knowing the value of yourself. 

Website: https://lovepeoplemakemoney.com/
Email: kelly@kellymccausey.com
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/kellymccausey/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kellymccausey/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellymccausey/zh-cn
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kellymccausey/

Resources:

Books

Profit First: Transform Your Business from A Cash-Eating Monster To A Money- Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz
No B.S. Sales Success in the New Economy by Dan S. Kennedy

Podcast

Elevation Church Podcast with Steven Furtick

Event

Exposure and Profit Event with Kelly McCausey

 

Inspirational Quotes:

“For any of you who are … thinking that your lower rate is better, No. You’re actually doing yourself a disservice because people will not consider you. Because they don’t see how you could possibly know what you’re doing when you don’t even know how to charge for what you offer.” –Kim Sutton

“A poverty mindset essentially… is just a general attitude of lack and fear and limit.” –Kelly McCausey

“The opposite of a fixed mindset is a growth mindset…this is how it is today. But tomorrow could be different.” –Kelly McCausey

“There’s something for everybody at whatever price point.” –Kelly McCausey

“When you grow that trust, and you prove your worth and your value, then they will eventually grow into that next level.” –Kim Sutton

“Whoever you’ve been up to now is no sign of who you may be tomorrow… You can create a new you tomorrow, you can begin designing that new person right now. We are living, breathing being and that’s what we get to do.” –Kelly McCausey

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

 

“Whoever you’ve been up to now, is no sign of who you may be tomorrow. I know people like to say that, like you’re somehow this, some of your experiences and all of that. it’s just not true. You can create a new you tomorrow. You can begin designing that new person. Right now we are living, breathing beings, and that’s what we get to do.”

———————————

 

Kim Sutton: Welcome back to Positive Productivity. This is your host, Kim Sutton, and today I am thrilled to be introducing our guest, Kelly McCausey. Kelly, is from Love People And Make Money, and wow, I mean right away. Can’t you just say that you love that title, and listeners, you know, if you’ve been listening for a while, you know that back in 2016, I shifted from being income focused, to impact focused. And, since then it’s sort of melded into the two because we can totally make an impact, and make money at the same time. So Kelly, welcome. I am so excited about what you do, what you teach, what you preach, and how you are just out there impacting the world. So, thank you so much for being here.

Kelly McCausey: Thanks for having me. I think we might be soul sisters.

Kim Sutton: Oh yeah, yeah. But we can’t tell her Ohio, Michigan friends, because they would not allow it.

Kelly McCausey: Yeah, yeah.

Kim Sutton: Yeah. But, I want to know what took you on this journey, and what makes you so super passionate about it. And I already told you I stack questions. So–

Kelly McCausey: Hm, hm, hm, hm, hm.

Kim Sutton: –could you think the listeners, down, like on a walk down memory lane, and tell them how you got to be where you are today.

Kelly McCausey: Yes. So, way back in 2002, I was a really broke–

Kim Sutton: (laughs).

Kelly McCausey: –really broke, single mom. I was working full time as managing the office at my church. I love my job but, it didn’t pay the bills. And so, I started to look for ways to make extra money from home. I started to do graphic design, and web design for other people, and it brought me into a community of work at home moms. Most of my clients were fellow moms, and I got blown away by all the different ways that moms were finding to make money online.

Kim Sutton: But, Kelly, you said 2002, I mean this is like pre-facebook.–

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –Where were you? Like Yahoo forums, or something?

Kelly McCausey: Yahoo groups?–

Kim Sutton: Aha.

Kelly McCausey: –Yes.

Kim Sutton: –Yeah.

Kelly McCausey: Private forums–

Kim Sutton: Aha.

Kelly McCausey: So, it was a very different world. I ended up starting an Internet radio show in November 2003, it was Work At Home Moms Talk Radio, this is pre-podcasting. It was a streaming Internet radio show where I pre recorded it, uploaded, and you could come to my website and click play. And everyone who came to listen were, they were moms, I met on private forums. So, my friend Alice [inaudible], was running Internetbasedmoms.com, and she had a private forum. Cheryl Demas, had WAHM.com, private forum, so we did have Yahoo groups. We had a place called RYZE, R-Y-Z-E.com. I think it still exists, but I don’t know anybody who uses it.

Kim Sutton: I’ve never heard of it.

Kelly McCausey: They were very, very early, similar version, ryze is similar to what we experienced with Facebook groups.

Kim Sutton: Okay.

Kelly McCausey: But yeah, really different, very tech, just text-based. But that’s how we would connect with each other, and that’s how I initially grew, my audience was through communicating in these spaces. I love to interview other moms, hear about what they were doing, that worked, and didn’t work. I ended up launching a membership site the next year. Mom Masterminds, Alison and I did that together. We taught moms about, you know, creating a website, getting traffic, building a mailing list.

Kim Sutton: Can I pause you again, because you just had me blown away, because, I started my first company in 2005,–

Kelly McCausey: Ehm.

Kim Sutton: –still pre-facebook, well

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –pre-Facebook for most people. I actually don’t know when they officially launched, but I know that, for me it was 2008, but I know they were probably already in colleges. I’ll have to look that up.

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: So, I got started on Ebay in 2005, and realize, okay, I should really take it. I should have my own website as well. So, I was sending my Ebay customers a postcard with their order.

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: To give them a promo code on my personal website. But I didn’t have wordpress. It was, I had–

Kelly McCausey: Alright.

Kim Sutton: –to hire a developer, or I hired a designer who hired a developer.

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –Right, and it was all HTML, it was ZEN CART.

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: Which, I don’t even know if they’re still around, but looking at the difference between, like I’m setting up my shop right now in woo-commerce, and–

Kelly McCausey: Ehm.

Kim Sutton: –i’m thinking back to the days of San Carlo Holey Moley.

Kelly McCausey: –Oh Man.

Kim Sutton: –And they having to make it like a simple change on my site. Oh, I can’t even tell you how many times I took the site down.

Kelly McCausey: We have so much to be grateful (laughs) for today. The tools that we have available, the stuff that’s open source, the tutorials that are freely available.

Kim Sutton: Amen to that.–

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –Amen to that. So, okay, so you were doing graphic design, and I just want to touch upon what you said. You were working at, your church office

Kelly McCausey: –Ehm.

Kim Sutton: –You weren’t able to pay the bills.

Kelly McCausey: –Right.

Kim Sutton: –So, I wasn’t an interior architect for 10 years plus, I mean that’s what I went to school for. GOB’s of student loans, I mean I’m still paying them off, and I graduated 20 years ago almost, okay. So, I lost my job when the economy tanked, I mean you’re in Michigan. I know that Michigan was hit hard when the economy tanked, because of all the automotive stuff. In 2008 I lost my job. I’m asked, I had the day, and we have a lot of, like part manufacturers down here, and I was designing schools. So the bond issue stopped passing, cause the people who lost their jobs didn’t want to pay for the school improvements.

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: Coincidentally, I ended up getting a job as an administrative assistant at American Honda. So you know, Honda is, it was still doing great even though American car companies, not so much, but I just felt like I was doing something so wrong. Here I am working 40 hours a week. Everybody was saying, they should be cutting it. I mean, I was living in rent income based housing, so–

Kelly McCausey: Ehm.

Kim Sutton: –I couldn’t make over a certain amount, without getting extra fees put on my rent. But I still couldn’t break the rent. I was going through paperwork a couple of weeks ago. I file, or I shredded a decade of paperwork, and I can’t tell you how good it felt, because when I was going through my file for that apartment complex, I probably found at least 12 eviction warnings.

Kelly McCausey: –(laughs) Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –It’s not like I wasn’t working. There was nothing that felt worse to me, than knowing I was working my butt off, and I still couldn’t cut it.

Kelly McCausey: Yup. I owned my own home thanks to rural housing. I, you know, I was able to get financing for a house in a really low house payment. But we’re talking when I, I made less than $8 an hour at the church.

Kim Sutton: Oh my gosh.

Kelly McCausey: And so, it didn’t really matter how cheap the house was. The house could have been free, and I still would have been in a world of hurt, because you know, stuff happens. My well had motor died, you know, that’s a thousand dollar bill.

Kim Sutton: Yeah.

Kelly McCausey: You know, the propane tank ran empty. It was colder winter than we expected. That’s 600 bucks to fill.

Kim Sutton: Yup.

Kelly McCausey: You know, those things would happen, and it would just completely knock me off my feet, and it would take months to feel like I was back. Even just like bare minimum again. I was a high school dropout then I was a college dropout. I just quit everything. So yeah, I was broken. I didn’t expect it to ever change, to be honest.

Kim Sutton: But it did.

Kelly McCausey: Yes (laughs).

Kim Sutton: So, can I just chime in here for listeners—

Kelly McCausey: Yeah, sure.

Kim Sutton: –who are out of the country, and I haven’t looked at this in a couple of years, but according to some website I looked at a couple of years ago, Federal Income Poverty Guidelines say something like $9,000 per person in a family. We have seven people in our house. So technically, we are considered low income under 63,000

Kelly McCausey: Hmm.

Kim Sutton: My husband was working full time, I was working full time, we were bringing in about $35,000 a year, and we still didn’t qualify for food assistance.

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: So I don’t want people, I don’t want anybody listening to think that, well number one, you can be working your butt off, and still just struggle day to day. And just, I remember looking at the sky, and wondering what next.–

Kelly McCausey: Hmm.

Kim Sutton: –Dear God, what are you gonna throw at us next? Because, I understand you’re trying to teach us something, but this is not funny anymore.

Kelly McCausey: –(laughs).

Kim Sutton: –Absolutely not funny. Like, I remember standing in my front yard, just like tears running down my face. What next? Because I’m tired, I’m tired, but we pull through, yeah. Okay, so I interrupted your story so rudely, I want to know more.

Kelly McCausey: I think there’s probably a great reason for the emphasis on this, because there’s somebody listening who feels like, you know, like they’re living in constant dread of the next shoe to drop. I know, that’s how I felt at the time–

Kim Sutton: Yeah.

Kelly McCausey: –I was so broke, I was so in debt. I so felt without options, that I almost can’t even tune in and relate to what I was thinking at the time, because my life is so different today. But, I’ll tell you that when I started my business, I just needed to make $200 a month, so that I would stop getting those shutoff notices.

Kim Sutton: –(laughs) I so understand, I so understand.

Kelly McCausey: So I was focused on, I just need to make a couple hundred dollars a month. And so, I started doing the graphics and web designs–

Kim Sutton: Yeah.

Kelly McCausey: –for moms, helping them, you know, set up a little shopping cart, make a button, make a banner. I was getting, I was charged like $5 for a button, $10 for a banner, 50 bucks, and make your whole shopping cart look good. That was my money mindset was so low. I, so undervalued myself in what I had to offer, but perfect match for my audience, because my audience was highly frugal, but starting the radio show, and then the next year, starting the membership, there, I experienced a major shift,, because when I started the Internet radio show, I discovered that my gift for being in community and just being interested in other people. That was a natural part of my life, but now, applied to business, it made money, because people pay to sponsor my radio show, and the membership site, people paid order to have access to Alison an I, to our advice. You know, The Work At Home Mom Community,even today, if you go out looking for ways to work from home, you run into a lot of crap, a lot of scams, and Alison and I, had a very, had a scam free community, you know? No, no scuzzy stuff, just genuine ways to make money online. And so, people would pay to be able to be in a space where they could trust the advice, and the feedback, and to realize that my natural gifts, my gifts for being interested in other people, for connecting them with resources, for being in creating, creating a space for a community that is loving people (laughs), and it makes money when it gets connected to a need for somebody. And I went from only aiming to get a couple hundred dollars a month, to having thousands of dollars flowing in a month. And, for the first time I actually can considered paying my bills (laughs), sounds so dumb.

Kim Sutton: It doesn’t sound dumb because, I totally understand. So I’m divorced, and my boys, my older boys father lives a block and a half from my house, and we moved into the neighborhood after him, so it’s totally our fault. But, he would drop them off before school, and–

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –My younger one walked in, and he says: “Where’s Dave’s car? Is Dave already at work?” Like: “What are you talking about?” He’s like: “Well, Dave’s car’s gone.” Like,:”What?” “Can I go look outside?” “Sure enough.”

Kelly McCausey: –Yup.

Kim Sutton: –“The car’s gone.” Well, it wasn’t there folks, it was repoed (laughs).

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –We got it back, I mean everything has come back. But, I want to share with you Kelly that, while I was working at Honda, this is a decade after you, 2012, I was remarried by that point. I needed to make extra money. My husband was a high school dropout. He got his GED, and then he started college after he kept on losing his job, and he’s now a videogame designer, but he had three years to get a four year degree, so he could not work, and it was $12 an hour. So, I was making more than you, but it still wasn’t cutting it. I mean, I am not ashamed to admit that, there was one time that our power was turned off

Kelly McCausey: –Hmm.

Kim Sutton: –And, I went to the box on the end of the row of apartments that we were in, and I was trying to Jimmy, and open to turn my power back on, because I mean, I didn’t know what to do. But anyway, so I started, I went on to a freelancing website, and was looking at the opportunities that were available for virtual assistants. And I kept on seeing all these overseas for tool assistants, who I am proud to say, I have a large team of overseas team members, and I love them dearly, but I thought that they were my competitor. So

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –I was charging $8 an hour for virtual assistance with a college degree, and with a decade and a half of corporate experience. But I thought that they were my competitor, and I didn’t have the confidence in myself to charge more. And I was looking at people who were charging 40, 50 an hour for virtual assistants. It was like, where do they get off charging that much?

Kelly McCausey: Yup, we are so, so scissors scam, we have journeyed the same financial mindset.

Kim Sutton: –Yeah. And the crazy thing is, I mean, so when I quit my job, I was contracted out for 80 hours a week, because when people realize, yes I was charging this little, but I did actually have brains. Some of them told me they didn’t even take an appointment with me, because they didn’t see how it could be charging that little.

Kelly McCausey: –Right.

Kim Sutton: –They didn’t trust. And I, for any of you who are listening, who are thinking that your lower rate is better? No, no you’re actually doing yourself a disservice, because people would

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –not consider you, because they don’t see how you could possibly know what you’re doing, when you don’t even know how to charge for what you offer.

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –So, I was contracted out for 80 hours, and I was actually, so 80 hours a week times eight. So that’s, that’s still only, what? $640 a week.

Kelly McCausey: –hmm.

Kim Sutton: –So, I was just trying to bring in $2,000 a month.

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: That was going to be more than I was making, far more than what I was making at Honda. But now, like I just did a chart for my sister last week, she’s my operations director. I was like, look at all these different paths that we can take to having $60,000 months.–

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –It’s not hard. You just need to do the work. And you need to not give up. Okay, so back to your story. I feel so rude, i’m so interrupting.

Kelly McCausey: No, when I say I actually considered paying my bills, I mean, I paid my mortgage, I paid my phone bill, I paid for my insurance when I could, but I had old credit card debt from before. Right after my divorce, I lived off it for a little while. I had voluntary surrendered a vehicle that I couldn’t afford to keep making the payments on. So, I had this debt hanging out there, and whenever I would get the calls from the debt collectors, I would hang up, and when I would get the letters, I’d throw them away because, what could I do about it? I just chose to ignore the problem, and I realized, oh my goodness, i’m actually making money, like real money. I think I’ll pay my bills (laughs). It took me about three years, but I was able to declare that I was debt free at the end of 2005.–

Kim Sutton: Oh, my goodness.

Kelly McCausey: And once that happened, that’s when I really took stock of, once I wasn’t pending, sending all my money to debt collectors. I had money in the bank, and I realized what I’m doing as a part time side hustle is making way more than my day job, which by then, I was making $11 an hour at the church, but I realized I wanted to do it full time and, I gave my notice left to the day job, left the church beginning of 2006, and so I’ve been on my own self, fully self supporting since then. Fast forward when I left the church, I had made about 50,000 in a year, and this last year, I had cash flow in, not take home, but revenue of a quarter of a million.

Kim Sutton: Wow, wow. So, I have to ask just because I’m nosy, and also because it’s inspired by the book that I’m reading. I’m reading Profit First–

Kelly McCausey: Ehmm.

Kim Sutton: –I’m sorry. By the time I get done finished reading this book, I know that was redundant, and you’re gonna be tired of hearing me talk about it. Have you ever read it?

Kelly McCausey: I haven’t. It’s been recommended, but I haven’t read it.

Kim Sutton: That was what I was saying too, until I just started this past weekend. What I had been doing up until this past weekend (laughs), is seeing the money that was in my account, and thinking that it was available to spend, right? And, I then they have a budget. I wasn’t looking at the money that was being spent. I wasn’t paying myself first. I wasn’t putting anything aside for profit or taxes. And so, doing just his exercise, I’m realizing, oh my goodness, I am overspending for operating expenses on underpaying myself, and I’m not at all prepared for the future. So, where I was going with this is, you had a cash flow of a quarter million, but have you established a budget? Like are you conscious? Conscious probably isn’t the best word, but I think it fits of what’s going out, versus like what you need to be going out.

Kelly McCausey: I can honestly say yes, and no. I have always maintained a pretty low overhead. I don’t create work for anyone if I can help it. So, I know a lot of my contemporaries in the information marketing space, they create work so that they have to have, you know, big team of virtual assistants supporting them. And, I’ve just never seen any reason to create work if it’s not necessary. So, my overhead is low, so on the one hand, I do have a budget, like I just don’t overspend. But on the other hand, my business growth was pretty rapid over the last year and a half, and I didn’t properly account. So, I had a very rude awakening with the tax man this spring–

Kim Sutton: Uh.

Kelly McCausey: –And I have always, and it goes back to working with Work At Home Moms, it’s always been super transparent about my income, my expenses, where it’s coming from, where it’s going. And so, I outed myself to my community, that like, ouch, i’ve just had a very painful experience. I did not properly track my numbers last year, so I did not properly increase that I was withholding, paying for taxes, and now I’m in a pickle but stinks, and you know, I’ll deal with it, I’ve been in debt before so I know how to get out. But yeah

Kim Sutton: –Oh my god.

Kelly McCausey: –so it’s,yes, no

Kim Sutton: –Yeah.

Kelly McCausey: –Yes, I have a budget, and it got away from me last year.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, well I’m just in the process of changing my accounting systems, full disclosure, my friends, is that we were tracking expenses in a Google spreadsheet, and–

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –How we’re actually doing it in quickbooks, which is picking it up automatically from my business bank account and paypal, and I can even see, you know, if I transfer a payment from paypal to bank, like it’s taking care of it all. Yes, I need to check. I was just about to throw my laptop out the window this weekend, doing this, because my numbers weren’t reconciling. My parents are both accountants, and I committed to myself that, that was something I was never going to do because it’s just so WOAH to me.

Kelly McCausey: –Ehmm.

Kim Sutton: –So, doing this, but I realized it was an exercise I needed to do, and I’m sure that with the Work At Home Mom community, you’ve seen it where, oh my gosh, this email just hit my box. I need this, it’s gonna help me take it to the next level. I’ve had these clients who purchase like $250,000 of online courses using their credit card.

Kelly McCausey: –Oh, my word.

Kim Sutton: And they’ve never log-in to the program. Well–

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: No wonder the program isn’t benefiting you. You’ve never even, first off, you bought it. And I’m guilty of this too. I’ve purchased programs and never even logged in, which is just embarrassing. But then, number two, okay, so you logged in, you went through it, but did you actually implement it? Cause if you’re not implementing what you paid for, then what’s the point of paying for it? The next email that hits your box is not your magic ticket.–

Kelly McCausey: Oh, right.

Kim Sutton: –That’s all I’m trying to say.

Kelly McCausey: Yeah, that’s bright, shiny object syndrome at its best. I’ve never, well, partly because when I was starting my business, I didn’t have any money to spend. I never developed the attitude of, Oh, I can just spend my way to success. And I think some people did. I think to some degree they thought, well, if I spend money on this course, I’ll be more successful. If I spend money on this coaching, I’ll be more successful. If I do this program, I’ll be more successful as if the act of getting their credit card out is going to create the success. Definitely not true.

Kim Sutton: So I assumed all the credit card debt when I got divorced, all of it, because my first business, my online shop, totally tanked. I thought, well, okay, the more inventory I have, the more I can sell. So, let’s just max out the credit cards.–

Kelly McCausey: Ouch.

Kim Sutton: –Yeah, bad idea. So, I walked away with about a hundred thousand dollars in debt. It was so bad. Like, I was getting advice from people to file bankruptcy

Kelly McCausey: –Ehmm.

Kim Sutton: –But, I was so broke that I couldn’t even afford the 25 hundred dollar bankruptcy fee

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah, yeah.

Kim Sutton: –And, I’m somewhat thankful for that now, it has come back to bite me. But, I too have been getting out of debt. I mean, listeners, I just want you to know what exactly it can happen when you’re ignoring those bills, because we really are soul sisters. And we started calling the people who were calling our fan club, because it’s really embarrassing when you have people at your house, and the phone just keeps on ringing. Oh, it’s just the fan club. And people didn’t question, you know, but if you say, oh, it’s the collections, um, yeah.

Kelly McCausey: –Mmm, mm, mm.

Kim Sutton: –And then the mail, I can’t do anything about it today. So, I didn’t go so far as to throw it out, but it just got shoved into one box, and one box turned into four boxes of just outstanding bills. But what happened was, is that one of those credit cards that I hadn’t paid off, they ended writing it off against me, and the IRS came back and said, this company wrote it off, and now that makes your income look this much higher, because it affected my income for that year, and now you owe us a refund for the refund that we paid you. How do you want to pay that?

Kelly McCausey: Oh my word. I didn’t know that that sort of thing happened.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, yeah. So don’t use that technique, is all I’m saying (laughs).–

Kelly McCausey: (laughs)

Kim Sutton: –because, that was pretty, I mean, first off, when you get a letter in the mail from the IRS, like your heart starts beating like 10 times faster, like

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –Oh my gosh. And then when you open it up and see this is a bill, what the heck? I got a refund last year. Why do I, oh (laughs).

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –And they are coming back to me. So, I got a divorce in 2011, this right often ends up happening till 2015 but, I only found out about it in 2018.

Kelly McCausey: –Ehmm.

Kim Sutton: –So they’re going back several years and charging me back.

Kelly McCausey: –Wow.

Kim Sutton: –Yeah, but I love how you’ve been making these changes, and listeners, regardless of your spiritual beliefs. I was listening to a podcast last night. I listened to Elevation Church Podcast with Steven Furtick, and I was actually listening to one that was talking about, basically about not giving up, and regardless of what your spiritual beliefs are, I’m gonna put it in the show notes, because it’s just such, so many people give up when they’re two steps away from what they’re waiting for. They can’t see it. So they give up and I, oh my gosh, I had been so close to giving up, and had I, like big things happened within a week, or two weeks, or sometimes a month, but I wouldn’t have seen that. But the

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –The show notes, by the way are at thekimsutton.com/PP592.

Kelly McCausey: Well, so to speak to that giving up, so I became really aware of that. I had a poverty mindset, and a poverty mindset essentially says there is not enough. No matter what I do, I won’t get enough and so I have to protect what I have. It’s just a general attitude of the lack, and fear, and limit. It’s a very fixed attitude, like this is what it is. This is my life, I’m a poor person. Even if it doesn’t translate to POOR, it’s still like fixed and limited, like, so maybe you don’t consider yourself POOR, but you’re just at the lowest level of middle class, so you don’t ever get to do anything FUN. You know, you’re not doing things that would bring you joy, fixed limit, this is it, this is my life. That’s a poverty mindset.

Kim Sutton: How did you protect your money? Like, when you say you were protecting it, how did you protect it? Because, I protected it in a way that was definitely not protecting it, and I’ll share after you share.

Kelly McCausey: So,now, when I say protect it, I’m not thinking of myself necessarily, but I’m thinking about people. Let’s say, somebody is struggling at such a low level of income right now, that they’re receiving some kind of assistance, whether it’s food stamps, or some childcare help, or something. They’re getting help, and they get a chance to make some more money, or get a better job, but that would cause them to lose their benefits. They’ll say no to the better job, because the benefits are the first sure thing that they’re protecting.–

Kim Sutton: Right.

Kelly McCausey: –Like, yeah, maybe I’ll make more money, but for sure if I stay where I am, I get my help. That’s what I mean by that protection.

Kim Sutton: I can totally see that, well I was raised in a way that, if I didn’t spend the money that I made, I got my first job when I was 11, I was delivering papers and babysitting. If I didn’t spend my money on what I wanted to spend it on, then my money was going to help with household expenses, and I didn’t want that happening. Like, and I wouldn’t have a choice in that, if I had money–

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –it was gonna be gone.

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: So, I started spending the money before anybody else could, and that Karen would be all the way through last year. And, I heard it on a podcast, somebody was talking about the same thing. I don’t remember what podcast it was, and who the person was, but they also had their first job, and they were 11 delivering papers, and they were saving for a bike, and they got home one day and their piggy bank had been broken open–

Kelly McCausey: Hmmm.

Kim Sutton: –And they went to tell their mother that: you know, “they had been robbed.” And the mother had said: “Nope, I needed the money, so I took it.” And I realized, every time we got a refund, or any type of big payment, we were spending the money as fast as it was coming in, just to make sure that nobody got to it before we did.

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –And that is not protecting your money. You just

Kelly McCausey: –Right.

Kim Sutton: –want profit. First says, take out some of that money. I mean, according to my bracket, I should be taking 5% out, and putting it into an account that I can’t touch,

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –imagine that. That way, the next time they will, what did you say? They will take, or whatever bus. Then you have money to take care of it, yeah,

Kelly McCausey: –Take care of it, yeah, yep, yep, yep.

Kim Sutton: –Yeah.

Kelly McCausey: –If you’re listening to this and you’re thinking, yeah, you’re describing me, i’m pretty sure I have a poverty mindset. I have this subtle belief that this is all there is. There’ll never be enough. And what I want you to understand is that, there’s another way to think of fixed mindset says, this is it, that’s all there is, It’ll never change. The opposite of a fixed mindset is that growth mindset, and a growth mindset says: “So, oh look, I noticed this is how it is today, but tomorrow could be different. This is who I am today, but this is not who I will be tomorrow. I’m not a tree, I have legs, I can walk. I am not a ROCK, I don’t have to wait for someone else to pick me up and move me. I am a human being, I have places to go, I have spaces to create, I have people to love, and money to make and I CAN.” You can literally adopt a new mindset and start walking things out differently.

Kim Sutton: Oh my gosh. So when can we meet, like halfway, I’ll go halfway up 75, you come halfway down 75, and I can give you a big hug for saying exactly that.Before you go on though, I just have a quick question about that. I’m sure you’ve seen it just as much as I have, and I’ve been guilty of doing it for myself. Being in the poverty mindset, I have put out products. I am proud to say that I haven’t done this in at least two years, but I came up with a spur of the moment product idea, threw it out there, and it tanked, like

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –no money whatsoever. I know that we all have within us, great ideas, and personally I feel like we need to, not do spur of the moment launches, because now that I’ve done it, because of the poverty mindset, I can spot a poverty mindset launch from like a mile away. I see it on Facebook and I’m like, wait a second, this just completely came out of left field as compared to anything I have seen this person before. I did not get any like, emails in advance, you know, cause you can tell when they’re getting ready for a launch, because you start getting emails more regularly. But this just comes out of complete left field, and you’re like, yup, somebody is looking to pay the rent, or the mortgage this month.

Kelly McCausey: –Huh, ha, ha.

Kim Sutton: –Does it, I mean

Kelly McCausey: –Is that necessarily a bad thing? It’s interesting because I fly by the seat of my pants. There are big rocks planned things in the course of my year, but there’s a lot of impromptu stuff too.

Kim Sutton: Well, I’m not saying about the impromptu, but when it’s coming out of, because, I have chronic idea to start, or I’m writing a book on it, so I get ideas, you know, I’ll stand up after this podcast, and I’ll probably have 18 new ideas that hit my brain.–

Kelly McCausey: Yup.

Kim Sutton: –But, where I was falling short for myself was that I was seeing what was working for everybody else. And regardless of whether or not it was even in my bucket, regardless of whether or not I had any passion for it, I was trying to make my own version, and I will tell you that when I was creating those courses, you could hear it in my voice. It was like Ferris Bueller, Bueller, Bueller.

Kelly McCausey: –Ehmm.

Kim Sutton: –Like who would wanna listen to that? If I’m putting out content that I LOVE, it’s gonna sound as passionate as I am here on the podcast until you listen to, like the late in the day recorded ones, and by that point my brain is fried. But, you wanna hear, like my totally excited podcast recordings that are recorded like, early in the day. That’s when I wanna be recording my courses, because you build a feel my passion in those.

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –So that’s all I’m saying is, like I can tell because it just feels very off, and I’m not saying that we can’t shift, I have shifted, but there’s a difference to me.

Kelly McCausey: Yes, I’m calling in on the, what brought it to mind for you, the poverty mindset. I love to fly by the seat of my pants. I actually just did a challenge that was created, promoted and launched within two weeks, and it was super fun. I can get away with that ,with my community (laughs) because, I do stay in my wheelhouse of content marketing and community building. But there are times where I’ve seen somebody else, they have a great idea, but they sabotage it by launching it in a very like, I don’t want to stay half ASF (laughs).–

Kim Sutton: It would totally is, though, I’ve done it,

Kelly McCausey: –You know, they just throw it out there like, boom. Whether it is, like I gotta make some money right now. It’s interesting because, like I say, I’ve just recently done that, and I got away with it with my community, and I had a lot of fun. So somebody else might look and say, oh well, Kelly does things on the fly. I can do things on the fly. But if you have a very small mailing list, if it’s outside of the wheelhouse, if your people aren’t familiar with you covering that topic, if you’ve done no content creation that led up to that offer, it is going to flop bad. And so when someone does that without awareness, then it’s kind of like, oops, I wonder what I did wrong there. But when someone does it with awareness, and I think they’re more aware than they’re willing to admit a lot of times

Kim Sutton: –Aha.

Kelly McCausey: –it’s just a self sabotage attempt. It’s just, if they’re proving they have a poverty mentality, and they’re seeking to prove it, which sounds RIDICULOUS, right?

Kim Sutton: It does sound ridiculous.

Kelly McCausey: But, I used to do it all the time.–

Kim Sutton: Yep.

Kelly McCausey: –Like, yeah, I mean, I rebranded. My son grew up, left home a long time ago. He’s 29, so, I rebranded from Work At Home Moms talk radio many years ago. That’s not my niche anymore, but when I was going through my rebrand, I did a lot of sabotaging because, when I was serving Work At Home Moms, I could play behind a safe zone of moms are frugal, moms can’t afford to spend very much.

Kim Sutton: Oh my gosh, that’s so huge.

Kelly McCausey: When I rebranded outside of the market, people started to call me on my pricing.–

Kim Sutton: Yes.

Kelly McCausey: –And, I did not know my own value, and so, I kept subtly just proving that I wasn’t worth it by half, you know, going off half cocked with things and

Kim Sutton: –You’re hitting me in the gut right now. Like, not because I’m doing it right now, but because it’s like, huh, yep, done that.

Kelly McCausey: –Yup.

Kim Sutton: –I mean, I have my membership community, The Positive Productivity Pod, first, I went really low, really low for my product idea. Good thing my all, at the end of 2017, or September 2017, all my sites were hacked.

Kelly McCausey: –Ouch.

Kim Sutton: –Long story there, i’m not even gonna get into it. All my sites were hacked, before I had the ability to launch that, so it didn’t end up getting launched until just a couple months ago. But in the meantime, I was thinking about going really HIGH.

Kelly McCausey: –Ehmm.

Kim Sutton: –And then, I have found that comfortable medium. But the reason I went really low at the beginning was, because i’m looking to serve the people who are where I was just a few years ago. You know, broke, broken, and burnt out, and I did.

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –I say that with love because I understand where they’re at, but I was like, I can’t charge them more. They don’t have money for it. But I also know for myself, that when things were offered to me for free, or for very little money, I wasn’t taking advantage of it. I wasn’t logging in, I wasn’t doing the work because, oh, that’s not that much. Well, all of those, not that much is, and especially when you’re not taking action on them, they add up to a lot of unused stuff.

Kelly McCausey: –Ehmm.

Kim Sutton: –Then I read No B.S., it was Dan Kennedy, No B.S. sales success in the new economy, or something like that. Like, that was my last kindle read. I now read real books, authors, please forgive me. I read physical books, and that’s why I called it real, but I just meant in my handbooks. So, I read that, and he used the example of a person who was doing sales calls who sold fire protection for homes, and this person walked into a house, and like their kids were wearing hand-me-downs. My kids were hand-me-downs, the rugs were all tattered. Come on, I’m not gonna buy new rugs until my kid stopped spilling kool-aid on them. The furniture’s

Kelly McCausey: –Ehmm.

Kim Sutton: –you know, old same thing as the Kool-aid, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t need fire protection. But this person walked out, because they thought that the person couldn’t afford it. Like, they didn’t even give their pitch. But what, what he says in this book is: “What would happen the next morning if you saw that their house had burned down because they didn’t have fire protection. Would that be like crap?” There, I said it, now you can say is, the next time that you feel so uncomfortable.

Kelly McCausey: –(laughs).

Kim Sutton: –But you know, just because it doesn’t look, I mean, I drive a 1996 GMC conversion van. It runs, it’s the same thing. I am not going to upgrade my van, until my kids can learn how to control their cereal on their kool-aid.

Kelly McCausey: –Mmm.

Kim Sutton: –Maybe I will, maybe they just won’t be invited into my car. But you know, I’m totally happy, and that does not mean, just because I drive this less than pretty vehicle, does not mean I don’t have money to spend on what I need.

Kelly McCausey: –Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –Yep. So, I LOVE that you talked about that.

Kelly McCausey: Well, so let’s just talk a tiny talk a minute about funnels. So my pricing, similar to you, like I found my sweet spot. I’ve got coaches who wanted me to charge, you know, $20,000 for my private coaching program. I don’t wanna, I just don’t wanna, I have a funnel. My private coaching program comes in around $10,000 a year. My Group coaching program is $200 a month. I have an abundance of training programs that range in price from $27 to $197, I have an abundance of content out there, and a bunch of it is a free opt-ins, and so my funnel, I call my, it’s a plump funnel. There’s a lot out there for free pulling people into low cost offers, and mid cost offers, and then coaching programs, and then they have the possibility of coming to an event, and a retreat, or doing some private coaching. I have no interest in running a $20,000 coaching program at this time, because I’m a business coach, but business coaching is not my model. I’m not living off of my private coaching clients. I am living off of this whole funnel, where people show up everyday and buy something. It all works together, and so–

Kim Sutton: Did you say plump funnel, though–

Kelly McCausey: Yes, a plump–

Kim Sutton: I love that, I love that.

Kelly McCausey: –It’s a plump funnel.

Kim Sutton: –Okay, and part of the kids in the background, they’re excited about whatever data is making for lunch.

Kelly McCausey: –Yes, (laughs).

Kim Sutton: –You know, I have a plump funnel too. There are so many ways in there, so many low dollar offerings, modality offerings, and then it, it takes them like it, a funnel really gets skinnier, and we become more focused on what we’re offering at the top. But at this point I don’t have, I don’t have that 20,000 neither.

Kelly McCausey: The thing is, there are people who, who are in my community, they just came in through and affiliate, challenge it, like, I did a challenge for beginners, complete beginners, and so these are people who, some of them like, did change out of their couch to come up with $37 to take this challenge, because they are brand spanking new, and didn’t have any money to spend, but there are other people who came into that challenge who went on to join Momentum Coaching Mastermind, or take a special offer I made on a year of all access to my library. I have created a funnel that is just as welcoming to a newbie, as it is to a well established person who’s looking to optimize their income. My point was, there’s something for everybody at whatever price point, and so I don’t know. I guess that’s point.

Kim Sutton: No, I love it. And listeners, if you have not yet listened, it’s actually the episode that was just released last week when this episode is released. Sarah Noked, part two. We are talking about that same thing, like, you may be wanting to serve the higher level clients right now, but there are definitely, most likely have offerings that will serve the people who will eventually grow to your higher level offerings, and you’ll be able to foster them. You’ll be able to grow your, know like a trust factor, but then you’ll be able to grow them. Well, I just want to repeat that, the trust, because that’s so important. It’s hard to get that first dollar, but when you grow that trust, and you prove your worth and your value, then they will eventually grow into that next level. So, I absolutely love that. Now I want to jump over for a moment. I know you have a live event coming up. Can you share about that?

Kelly McCausey: Yes, thanks for asking. So, my business is all about Content Marketing And Community Building, and I do a live event every year called, Exposure And Profit, and I invite people to speak who have exemplified content marketing, or community building who I believe has, you know, a great story to share, a great strategy to learn, or that are just playing inspiring and motivating. It’s a three day event. I’ve been doing it in Atlanta, which I live in Michigan. And when I did my first exposure in profit event, this is my sixth, but when I did the first one, I looked around at where should I host it, so that it’s not a really big travel adventure for me. And nobody at the time wanted to come to Detroit. Today, I could probably do a Detroit event, but not five years ago. And so, i’m like, maybe Chicago, and then actually chose Toronto, because, I had a great base of members there, people–

Kim Sutton: Really.

Kelly McCausey: –who had been part of my membership way back in the day, I had a foundation of people. So yeah, I went to Toronto. It’s only four and a half hours from me, and it was great. I did it in Toronto for two years, and then there was an event we used to all go to in Atlanta every year that they stopped operating, and I decided, well, I’m gonna try Atlanta this year, because it’s so easy for people to fly in and out of Atlanta, and I’ve kind of fallen in love with it there. So, it’s coming up October 11th, 12th, and 13th.

Kim Sutton: Awesome. Okay, I need to know more, and I’m serious. We need to meet somewhere between Dayton and Detroit because, I just want to give you a big hug for everything that you are doing. Everything that you have done, everything that you have overcome. Because, even though I’m on the same path, just a different one. I know what i’m trying to say. Just bear with me for a second, like you are inspiring me, so thank you.

Kelly McCausey: I don’t know if you’ve experienced what I’m experiencing, especially this month is a really unique soon deputy. I’m running into people who have walked like this similar journey of, you know, realizing my value, stepping into comfort in operating in my own gifts, and seeing more flow, it’s just the best way to put it.

Kim Sutton: Serendipity keeps slapping me in the face, so I keep on–

Kelly McCausey: Yeah.

Kim Sutton: –I hear you completely, and yes, in this month, I mean, and we are only 18 days in. Yes, I am timestamping this, we are 18 days into the month of June, 2019, and oh, my gosh, this month is probably a bad, one of the most impactful in so many ways in my business ever, and it’s completely, just completely amazing. I want to ask you, Kelly, can we bring you back for a part two, because I want to dig into a lot of what you said even further.

Kelly McCausey: Oh heck yeah.

Kim Sutton: Yeah, so let’s keep that set up. But in the meantime, where can listeners find you online, connect, get to know more, all that awesome stuff.

Kelly McCausey: So, exposure in profit.com is the web page for the other event, you can go check that out. And my home on the web Is, https://lovepeoplemakemoney.com/, that’s where I blog and podcast, and have my online home.

Kim Sutton: Awesome. And though, all the links will be in the show notes plus all the books and everything that we’ve talked about, so, head on over to thekimsutton.com/PP592, to get a hold of all that great stuff. I do not want you going though while you’re driving, please, hijack, no. Thank you so much again, seriously, like I feel bad cutting off now, but I’m sure you know like we have to, not only for both of our time, but for the moms who are listening, for the entrepreneurs who are listening. I often squeeze podcasts in between appointments, and I just want to get the whole bite size, you know, the whole thing in that time that’s allotted, so we’ll definitely do a part two, but before part two, do you have a parting piece of advice, or a golden nugget that you can share with the listeners?

Kelly McCausey: If there’s a golden nugget you guys pluck from today’s conversation, I hope, it is that, whoever you’ve been up to now, is no sign of who you may be tomorrow. I know people like to say that, like, you’re somehow this, there are some of your experiences and all of that, it’s just not true. You can create a new you tomorrow. You can begin designing that new person, right now, we are living, breathing beings, and that’s what we get to do.