Whether your business is bringing in a steady income, you're in a plateau, or you're waiting for your first dollar, it's important to have conversations around money and how you feel about it, what you'll do with it, and how much you desire to come in.

On this episode, Erinn Bridgman is going to help you shift your relationship with money and abandon imposter syndrome so you can attract more of it, own your worth, and grow your coaching business for long term wealth.

As a money management and mindset coach, Erinn Bridgman empowers female entrepreneurs to design a business that is not just ‘profitable’, but actually grows their personal wealth. Born with an entrepreneurial spirit, Erinn cut her chops by scaling her photography business to over six figures in under two years, affording her the capital to begin funding the real estate empire she and her husband now run. Ever passionate about supporting women as they uncover their own potential and earning power, Erinn supports female business owners to not just ‘scale their business’ but to use it as a means for building personal wealth. When she’s not working with clients or finding her next investment property, Erinn can likely be found vacationing around the world and spending quality time with friends, her husband and daughter, Ava.

Erinn's links:

https://www.erinnbridgman.com/

https://www.instagram.com/erinn_bridgman/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCiSayV14DEeIfFdIgFndkQ

Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00] Lindsay: Erinn thank you so much for being on the Book Your Dream Clients podcast, I'm so excited to have you on.

[00:00:51] Erinn: I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.

[00:00:56] Lindsay: We love to talk about making money in our business and how we can plan for the next shiny six figure or just making your first $27 in your business. That's all a big deal. In fact, I was just reading my journal from years ago last night. And I was so excited because I made $33 in affiliate income. And I was like, wow, this is the start of something.

[00:01:18] Amazing. We forget how, when we first started our business, how every little dollar meant so much. And then when we start to grow, we're like, you know, it almost becomes white noise and we forget what we should even do with all this money or how can we plan for the future? How can we actually take care of our families with it when it's coming in?

[00:01:38] 'cause no one really talks about that. They kind of talk about just the business side of hiring a team and doing all the things that you hear over and over. So I'm glad to have Erin on cause she is all about money management and mindset. And I think that's a really important cause money, especially now on this day.

[00:01:56] Money is filling a little we're approaching the tax day, right. We're like right on it. So maybe you're not feeling too good about making money in your business. Maybe you have some mindset issues, whatever it is, whatever stage you're in. I think this is gonna be a great conversation. So welcome, Erinn, why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to everyone.

[00:02:14] Erinn: Yes. Thank you so much, Lindsay. I'm excited to dive into this topic. So I'm Erin. I am a money mindset and management coach. I'm in the world of female entrepreneurship and have been coaching for the past five years. My roots are in photography, so I tracked a lot of. Creative entrepreneurs and coaches and help them wrap their mind around building wealth through their business and becoming comfortable with numbers and spreadsheets and all the fun things and really helping them move into wealth.

[00:02:51] And I believe wealthy women will change the world. That's why I do this work. And so that's me and I'm excited to chat. I 

[00:02:58] don't 

[00:02:59] Lindsay: know what else brings up. Just those bad little clouds in your brain, then money, especially when you're running your business. Like, there's so many things that come up and like, wow, I remember having you know, this conversation or overhearing a conversation as I'm growing up about taxes or about making too much money or making too little.

[00:03:19] You hear all of that stuff when you're starting your business and you're growing your business, like it all just comes out. Did that happen to you, Erinn? Or were you immune 

[00:03:27] Erinn: to that? Oh, I don't think anybody has entity. You know, I think. You're so right. That like money. I mean, if you think about it, like money is the source that makes the world go round.

[00:03:41] I mean, it's the energy that we exchange for living for everything. I mean, it's the foundation for so much. And I was actually just on a, oh, what I want intensive call with one of the gals in my program. And we, she, you know, it was. There were tears and there were breakthroughs and there's all this. And I said, this is why I do this work.

[00:04:03] Yeah. I want to help you and all the spreadsheets and making sense of the numbers and setting you up for long-term wealth. But this is why, because it unearth so much. And it, it, you know, in, from, from our childhood and from, I mean, if you think about women and money and what has changed, even in the. A hundred years, like we've been up against society, societal, you know, challenges for ever.

[00:04:31] I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't, but within the past 100 years, a woman could not open a bank account without a man. I mean, so you. There's a lot societaly for women and individually in our stories. And yeah, I grew up with a story of there was a lot of beauty to it. It taught me a lot. There's a lot of gifts in it, but also just challenges around.

[00:04:57] My, both my grandparents were very blue collar. My parents were raised very like pretty low income and. You know, and with that comes different stories around money that I've had to battle. One of my biggest ones is that you have to work really hard to make good money and That propels forward this, sometimes this workaholic nature, this lack of ease around and flow around money.

[00:05:23] And so certainly in the process of working with so many women I have, you know, worked in and continued to work on my money story. And I think that's really important because. I think when you're, you know, I'm the coach, I should have it all together. And I love to remind my clients and my audience you know, I still, it's a continual journey of nurturing and upleveling and of really making it so that we are pressing into the challenges.

[00:05:55] And so I haven't arrived. I'm just working on it and have progressed and continue to. Yeah. 

[00:06:03] Lindsay: Well, I think we're always, we're always searching and rising and you're never going to be done facing mindset issues or challenges because every time you go to a new level, it's different and so different things are going to come up.

[00:06:18] And I love that you said just because I'm a coach doesn't mean that okay, I'm done with that part. That's not true. And I'm so glad you said that because I think we put coaches on like coaches that we look up to that we're learning from. We put them on a pedestal, possibly thinking that everything's easy for them.

[00:06:35] They don't have any issues anymore. I do. So there's something wrong with what I'm doing. And then we just kind of have that constant battle in our head and we all have those things. We all have financial things that we all have to take care of responsibilities and our business and, and whatnot. But when money starts actually coming into our business, and let's say you start booking clients, or all of a sudden, like you got this rush of students in your first launch and you have this money coming in.

[00:07:03] That is exciting and terrifying. And that happens to a lot of my people. This is like their first time for all of that stuff. No one is talking about what to do with that money when it's coming in, especially all at once. Do 

[00:07:17] Erinn: you want to talk about. Yeah, well, I just want to reflect back on my story years ago when I went from charging like a therapist very low, like just not that there's anything wrong, but the model wasn't right for me as a coach and as I'm helping people scale their businesses, I'm like I made $600.

[00:07:35] Okay. That doesn't make sense. And I created a whole program and I quadrupled my rates. And so I was like a 10 week program for $2,500. And. I remember, like first my freak out, my ego in my head was like, oh my gosh, nobody's going to book this. And I was like, I'm going to manifest for clients this first month.

[00:07:58] It's going to be happen. And you know, obviously it's not just magic. We do certain action and I booked for clients. So there in 10 days I made 10 K and 10 days. And then I was like, oh my gosh. It happened. Now there's a whole nother set of crazy head spiraling things that happen. And maybe, maybe I should just give her money back.

[00:08:22] Maybe. I don't know what I'm doing, you know? And I love to first in that I love to just like recognize that money is energy and that as long as we are full of integrity in the exchange and feel like, Hey, them giving me $2,500 of their energy is going to give them that back plus more, you know, Eh, the value is, is equal to M beyond that we just it's like, okay, that's it.

[00:08:56] This is an energetic exchange. And I think that's been something really helpful for me as I've grown different programs and done different things in the industry to just make sure like you know, that my pricing is reflective of what I believe people will get out of the experience. And that's what I always say about sales because people.

[00:09:18] Get really weird about sales and they feel like it's icky. And I just say sales is service at the next level with an energetic exchange of money. And so I'm grateful that I have people in my intensive that are giving me money because I'm able to invest my energy and my talent into them in a way that's going to transform their lives different than if they were just, you know, following me on Instagram and consuming my free content.

[00:09:45] So Yeah, I think that that's like maybe some approach around mindset. And then when it comes to managing. I mean, there's so many things we could talk about here, but I think, you know, as your listeners and as they identify, like, are they right at the beginning? Are they, you know, a bit further on into their entrepreneurial journey, wherever they are.

[00:10:08] It's really important to make the mental switch and the management switch to this is not a hobby. This is a business. And if that, that switched from hobby to business is really about the monetization of what you're doing. So it means there's money involved, which means we have to start to pay attention to the numbers.

[00:10:31] And so, you know, I encourage lots of different ways that we do that, but we've got to understand, you know, what, what are we bringing in? What is that costing us? What are we able to pay ourselves? How can we prepare for taxes? And we can go whatever direction you want to, that would be helpful for your audience, with the management side of things.

[00:10:54] But no, I mean, it's great foundation. 'cause a lot of times I'm working with people who are, you know, five years in and haven't been doing this work. And so we have to start new habits. You have to undo things and so beautiful to be able to do it earlier on in your entrepreneurial journey and set that foundation right at the beginning.

[00:11:15] Lindsay: Absolutely. Why do you think it's so hard for coaches to switch from this as a hobby to this as an actual business? Why is 

[00:11:22] Erinn: that so hard? Well, I mean, I can't speak for everyone, but a co a couple of co I guess one of the most common things that I would say I see is there's an underlying worthiness conversation.

[00:11:37] And as I work with people and we dive into their money stories and their money beliefs, this often comes up. Source from different places. But many times we get into coaching because we love it. We're like, oh my gosh, you know, I love helping people with this. And then you see all the sudden, you know, This could be something I monetize and then we start to charge a lower rate, and then we start to increase our rates because we're believing in ourselves and the product and the transformation more.

[00:12:11] And maybe we have personal goals around, you know, really making this lucrative enough, lucrative enough to live off of, but in that process where our ego is kind of freaking out because, wait, am I allowed to. You know, charged for something that I love to do. Can I make money? Am I worthy to make money for this?

[00:12:37] And when we're coaching, it's really us, people are paying for us. They're paying for our energy. They're paying for our knowledge, our intellect, our skills, our belief in them. And so it's. Personal exchange of money. And so I see a consistent conversation around worthiness and needing to really like dive into our story around money.

[00:13:03] And why are we struggling around that? And what has. To believe that we're not worthy to believe that money has to feel hard to get, it can feel like in flow and alignment. And so that's one of the things I see being most common with coaches or people doing work that they really love and that they almost fell into as a business.

[00:13:27] Lindsay: What are some common like beginner? Not, I don't want to say mistakes, but trends that you see that you are having to fix and remedy. 

[00:13:36] Erinn: Well people don't one of the biggest things I see is that people believe that they women, particularly that I work with say, I'm not a numbers person. I just don't know how to do the numbers side of my business.

[00:13:50] And I'm just like, I'm sweet, but I am like direct man. And I'm like, okay, that is bull crap. You can learn numbers like numbers is you don't come into the world. Nobody comes into the world understanding how math works or spreadsheets or what data to analyze. And so this is a skill we can acquire. And so I love to help women change their narrative.

[00:14:19] And what they're saying about themselves when it comes to, I just, I'm just not a numbers girl. I'm just really bad at math. Like. No, you say like I'm a business woman. So I am in the, in the path of learning how to be a numbers person. I am learning the skills. I am figuring out how to be financially savvy and stop labeling ourselves like that.

[00:14:41] So from a mindset perspective, that's, that's huge. And then from really practically what I see happening since people are not managing their numbers, they're scrambling when it comes to tax season. So. Want to pull their hair out because they've got to spend like 40 hours making sense of their P and L sheets and making sure they get their things.

[00:15:02] They're not prepared for their tax payment and many times as we're really helping women scale, which, you know, you're helping women land their dream clients and build their business. Like their tax bills is going to be much higher than it was in previous years because they're making more revenue.

[00:15:19] Yeah. Many times we're not prepared for that. And that was part of Brett and I's story years ago, we. We're killing it, which is great. Like, but we didn't plan for killing it when it came to taxes and we had an unexpected $18,000 bill, and that was hard. It's very stressful. And so I was on a mission that anybody who ever works with me will never be surprised by taxes based on my money matrix system.

[00:15:49] It literally computes how much to set aside for your taxes every month. So you're not surprised. Another one I see is that people don't really understand the profitability in their company. They think about their revenue. And so they're like, oh, you know, I just got paid $200 for this co you know, and you think maybe that's $200 in my pocket, but when you're not thinking about.

[00:16:15] That $200 cost me this much in taxes. This is how much it costs to actually run my business. So that's not really $200 in my pocket. It's 125. And so really being able to see the profitability in your company, by knowing all the numbers is huge. And then I like, yeah, we talk about profit first and profitability.

[00:16:38] And that is a really important metric to see the health of our business. We also want to really think about, and this is something I am very passionate about is how do we help our businesses fund our personal wealth? How do we help it come into our lives? And so that comes down to our salary and I work.

[00:17:03] Women who are incredibly successful. They have six figure brands or they're close to that. And yet I see many times they don't pay themselves a consistent salary. They are very versatile. Like they'll just draw from their business last, if at all And that speaks to our own personal value. What are we then saying about our money?

[00:17:25] Like, oh, you know, it's worth it to keep it in the bank account or to keep it in the business, but not bring it into my own life. And It doesn't set us up for long-term success. And so I love one of the things that when people work with me, we work to figure out what is your consistent salary? How do we raise it?

[00:17:45] How do we create bonus structures based on your personal wealth goals? And that's something I would love for your listeners to really think about what, wherever they are in their business. How can they start bringing the energy of money from their business, into their personal life? Even if that means they're paying themselves something very low to start with, that's a habit that they can then build on throughout the years that they have in business.

[00:18:10] You guys, 

[00:18:11] Lindsay: if you are not paying attention, rewind and play this all over again, especially when it comes to errands tax story, I can totally relate Erin because when that bill comes in or. What the heck, what w I, I wasn't planning for this. I wasn't planning for this big girl business here. I was just, you know, working in my office and all of a sudden my business blew up and now what the heck do I do?

[00:18:37] This is so important, because for some reason, no one really talks about long-term growth in your business, longterm success. What are we going to do when we get past 40, 50, 60? Are you going to continue doing this? You're managing your hobby, or are you going to be able to rely on the wealth that you've built throughout the grow the time that you have in running your business?

[00:18:58] No one is talking about that. So I'm like breathing a sigh of relief because this is very important. It's not just like, oh, I'll pay attention to this. When my business are springing in a thousand dollars a month or 5,000, that was my big thing. I'll start managing my money when I start bringing this amount in.

[00:19:16] And so I think that just holds everybody back. Do you see that? Or am I crazy?

[00:19:20] Erinn: No, no, I think, I think it's why see the, you know, the challenges I see with women in business for years is because we haven't created those habits because we've believed these like lies these beliefs around, you know, I'm not good at money or, you know, whatever the case may be.

[00:19:43] And so. For sure. I think, you know, something I'm picking up on that maybe a lot of your listeners will resonate with is this they're, they're really maybe believing small about the possibilities of their companies. And I would love for them to tap into the energy and into true vision around their business financially.

[00:20:06] And start to stretch themselves. And a cool exercise is to think like a year from now, what is my ideal picture? What is happening? Ideally in my business, in my life with my finances. Don't just stay in the present moment, hoping for the couple of hundred dollars, believe bigger, press yourself into your vision because that energy will propel you to do different action.

[00:20:33] Now that will land you in that vision a year, you know? And so I really, I really encourage your listeners to. Figure out a practice and exercise that will help them get into greater manifestation and greater belief around themselves. And that will really Excel what they're doing in their companies and the world needs what they have.

[00:20:57] Like we're talking about money a lot, you know, cause that's not my thing, but. You know, what they're doing for the money is going to change the world. That's beautiful work. I'm sure your listeners are heart-centered women doing beautiful things for the world. And so as they charge appropriately for that, and as they scale that it's going to do so much good.

[00:21:18] Yeah. For humanity. And so, and you know, obviously, you know, I'm sure there's so many stats that we could talk about around how people do not survive entrepreneurship long. And you know, I think a majority of businesses close in five years, and I think part of that is because we're charging so low and it's not like a sustainable.

[00:21:41] Model we're becoming bitter. And so that comes, I remember being so frustrated and looking at a friend, a colleague at the time and being like, what, how am I going to do this? Like, I'm working my butt off. I love it. And I'm making no money. And she looked at me and she said, I wish I could tell you that the problem was something else.

[00:22:01] But I'm looking at the problem. It, do you decide your pricing, you decide what you're worth. And so you get to change that. And because of a model of, of money that is sustainable, I can be in business a lot longer and do this and feel really good and feel, you know, I'm being honored with my skills in the marketplace and people are being served well.

[00:22:26] And so, yeah, I just really encourage your listeners to tap into that because it's going to help them. It's going to help the world. It'll be a beautiful thing. 

[00:22:36] Lindsay: I love your perspective. It seems it has a good recipe to it. A recipe that people can, can grab and try. I think a lot of times as coaches are approaching, you know, they've been doing this for a few years.

[00:22:50] They might have accomplished the things that they were trying to manifest. Like they paid off student loans or. The big things, those goals that they set for themselves, they checked all the boxes and now it's time for them to think bigger. And that's when it gets to be a little difficult. Like how do I think bigger?

[00:23:06] I don't even know what's possible after I pay off my house. How do you get people to think in a bigger way? 

[00:23:13] Erinn: Yeah. Well, I am a visionary by nature. I am. Strengths finder nerd. I'm a coach and I'm one of my strengths is futuristic. So I naturally live in that space, but I know that a lot of people don't necessarily, you know, some people are more past oriented or more present oriented.

[00:23:32] And so that's why I love like exercises, like write a letter from, from your future self, like dream about it. I was just in a conversation with someone that said, You know, I, I haven't really like dreamed that much, Erinn, like past this, and she has three reasons for that and baggage for that, all that. And so, you know, pressing into.

[00:23:57] You know, what CA what is possible? What are my values? What do I want to do with this precious life I've been given? And this time, you know, time is our most valuable resource. And you know, I think it's, that can, that will, if we get really attached to that vision we change what we do. And so I like to say like piles of green cash are not very motivating.

[00:24:22] Arbitrary goals that we have. I want to be a six-figure entrepreneur, you know, or I want to, you know, make 10 K I want to make five figures a month. All this language. We see people using to market their companies, which I am a part of. That is part of what I help people. Is make more money, but who cares if you're a six figure entrepreneur and it does absolutely nothing for you.

[00:24:47] And so when we start to be able to say, and to get into the vision work of okay. And the, and the planning, the management strategy work around, all right, you've got this debt, like you mentioned, like you were talking about that path. A lot of people still do have that. And. If that's your case. If, if it's, you know, I want savings, I want to buy a stock at home so that I can provide space for my family and friends to have, you know, serenity and connection or whatever that is when you start to.

[00:25:22] Actually strategize the money in your business. Okay. If I start to pay myself $7,000 a month, you, when I work with people, we understand the personal foundation of your money. So we understand what does it cost for you to live? Based on your lifestyle right now, we figure out your monthly budget. We figure out your short term, annual budget.

[00:25:46] So your vacations and your home maintenance and all that kind of stuff. And so we get a clear number. We figure out your salary, that you're paying yourself from your your business. And maybe you have another stream of revenue, whether it's a partner or whether you work somewhere else. And then we see the overflow and then we strategize the overflow.

[00:26:05] We strategize the. $2,321 that you have that you're making extra in April. And we make that money go to work. We put it towards debt payoff, or we say, okay, that is going to our goal to save $30,000 to buy our. Investment property or whatever. And when we assign dollars and we get that clear of a vision, and we're now it's not just piles of green cash.

[00:26:35] It's very clear assignments for our money that were. Built on our values and our vision. We're going to do different things to make that happen. We're going to increase our rates. We're going to take on more clients. We're going to show up on our, I was just talking with another client yesterday. She's like, Erinn, it's crazy.

[00:26:55] I leaving so much money on the table. I have a huge audience on tick-tock. I have 8,000 email subscribers, all of this, and I'm just getting in my own way. And I'm like, okay, well, let's like really bring into focus your vision. Okay. What if you could take off a maternity leave for three months and just keeps paying yourself and let's pay off your car and let's do all of this.

[00:27:16] We can see exactly what you need to do in your business, how much you need to bring in all of that. And it just lights a fire under people, and it's just beautiful. And so I think that's huge. Wherever people are at in their journey. Start to dream of what, what is possible, what is next and what is the exact dollar amount for that?

[00:27:41] Lindsay: I love that because I'm a very visual person too. And I think when we don't have a point to bringing in money in our business anymore, it's you plateau? Because the money's like, well, I don't know what you want me for. I don't know where I'm supposed to go. You're not even excited about it anymore. Wow.

[00:27:59] You're going to do with it 

[00:27:59] Erinn: when you get it right. Absolutely. It's all like law of attraction. If we are basically telling the universe, I'm good, you know, I feel really good and there's nothing. I always tell people, you can have deep gratitude and contentment and you can desire more. And in fact, I think that is the energy and the frequency that we should be in.

[00:28:21] But you know, then you're basically. You're going to do action out of that energy that says I'm good. I don't need more clients. You're not going to show up in this space is your, when you hear somebody that's like, you know, I could really use this. You don't really talk about your programs or whatever.

[00:28:38] Cause you're like, you're good. You know, so, yeah. And it's crazy. Like I love to bring into focus. I hear people say, I've, I've dreamed about like owning a home for years. Like that's something I really, the, and they vocalize that maybe for the first time to another person. And I'm like, you know, that's an actual goal you can strategize towards, towards, so how much do you need?

[00:29:03] Like what's the market. Get in touch with the real estate agent. What would you need to have for your down payment? What would you need to afford for your monthly payment? Okay. Let's see all the numbers. How can we get you there? Okay. You could. And, and the beauty, like I see my clients doing this work.

[00:29:22] They have this dream of retiring their partner with their business, and they think it's this far off, one of my gals that had this dream, it was like this far off goal. And we were able to bring her partner home within like a year. And or paying, I just got an Instagram DM I've paid off all my debt. It was over $80,000 of that.

[00:29:43] She had paid it off in 39 months and we just worked together. So I was helping her with like the last part of that. And so this is real stuff that changes people's lives. Yeah. 

[00:29:54] Lindsay: Oh my gosh. Perfect timing for this episode. I love, I think we could talk for a long time, Erinn, and I think everyone's like, please talk some more, but we have to wrap it up.

[00:30:06] Erin, how can everyone find more about you?

[00:30:08] Erinn: Yeah, I hang out a lot on Instagram. I'm also on Tik TOK. So you can follow me there with my name. E R I N N two NS. Bridgman B R I D G M a N. I'm sure we can just link that in the show. And I encourage your people to head over to my website. I have a quiz that they can take.

[00:30:31] I'm very practical as a coach. And so this helps them assess where are they at on their personal wealth journey and what are practical next steps for them to move to the next stage. And so I highly recommend them. Doing that and getting that resource and cheers to wealthy women and to precedent to this power, because not only are we changing our own lives, but we're changing history for women.

[00:30:58] Love that. 

[00:31:00] Lindsay: Thank you so much for being with us. Erinn. This is a great episode. 

[00:31:03] Erinn: Thanks Lindsay.