Financial Guru Jen Sincero On ‘You Are A Badass At Making Money’ [VIDEO EXCLUSIVE]

I am somebody who went from being broke to rich and I feel like I have a lot of information to share with people who feel stuck in the same way I felt. One of the first things I did to to do that was to make the decision to get wealthy. I studied finance, I read lots of book on money, and I also really looked at my mindset about money and noticed what my limiting beliefs were; like 'money is the root of all evil,' or 'I suck at making money,' or 'it's not ok to make money,' and stuff like that. All of that lead me to where I am now.

When we are little, we grow up receiving a lot of information from the people around us, especially our parents, and whatever beliefs they've got they throw on top of us and we take them as facts, and we don't even realize it. So stuff like, 'money is the root of all evil,' or 'you've got to work really hard to make money,' or 'you have to do stuff that's really fun to make money,' or 'only bad people with no morals focus on money, there are other things in life that are much more important,' those kinds of things, we take in as the truth when we are little. So what happens is, we grow up and we want to make lots of money because money is really fun [laughs], and yet we have these deep, underlying, self-conscious beliefs that are holding us back. It isn't until you become aware of what those are and re-write those stories that you can get out of your own way and allow yourself to get rich.

The one thing you can do is, honestly, make the decision to get rich. I know that sounds really easy and maybe even a little stupid but you'd be amazed at how powerful that is. Because when you make a real decision – not a fake decision like 'I'm going to do this until it gets too hard or too expensive or I might look like moron' that's not a real decision. A real decision is I am seeing this through until the end, no matter what. Once you make that decision to make a specific amount of money, everything falls into place. You stop looking to your fears, you look into your big ideas instead, you take scary leaps into the unknown, you push yourself a hell of a lot harder.

I'm not a big fan of recklessness but I am a big fan of enjoying your money while you are saving it. So, yeah, put stuff away for the future, pay off your debts, but also have fun with your money because if you don't let yourself have any fun with it and it's already spent before it comes in, even the process of making it isn't enjoyable. We are energetic creatures and when our energy is high about something and excited about it, we tend to perform better. So if spending a little money will get you to that place where money is fun and you're excited to make it, then you are going to be more proactive about making it instead of constantly socking it away and making it a fun-free experience.

Depending on what it is that you love – I think that phrase, 'do what you love and the money will follow' is pretty misleading. I think a better phrase is, 'do what you love, find awesome income streams for it, and the money will follow.' So again, you've got to focus on the money part, you can't just focus on the joy part because if it's just about the joy, it is often just a hobby, not a career. So, figure out how you can monazite the things you love to do. The best place to start with that is just to not take it for granted that just cause you are good at it, everybody's good at it. 'Why would somebody pay me to organize their closet?' 'Who cares?' People make tons of money being closet organizers! Use the internet, we've got incredible tools at our fingertips. What can you sell on the internet? What kinds of goods or services can you sell on the internet? You can reach all over the world, so, get creative and get paid for what you love doing.

Well I am a huge believer in authenticity and that every single person has something unique to bring to the world. I think Prince is such a beacon of light in that sense. He was so who he was regardless of what anybody thought about him. There is a great story I tell in my book about him warming up for the Rolling Stones back in the day when he really wasn't known very well. He came out in typical Prince fashion, in his little skivvies and his trench coat, and got booed off the stage two nights in a row. Instead of going out and putting on some pants, he decided in that moment that he would never warm up for anybody else again. He pushed himself to be as successful as he wanted to be and he did it by being authentic. I really urge people to understand that there are probably lots of people out there doing exactly what you're doing to make money and the most important thing you can do then is to be your authentic self because nobody is going to do it the way you do it.