Ep #446: What I Know About Millionaires

You are listening to The Life Coach School Podcast with Brooke Castillo, episode 446.

Welcome to The Life Coach School Podcast, where it’s all about real clients, real problems and real coaching. And now your host, Master Coach Instructor, Brooke Castillo.

Hello my friends. I am out on a walk. I’m in Scottsdale and it’s Saturday evening, I’m out on a walk and I’m thinking about millionaires. And I want to tell you what I know about them. I’m going to tell you what I know about millionaires.

Listen, the sound quality is not great on this because I have my headphones in and Pavel, my editor, is not going to like it. But some of you say you like these episodes the best, so it’s off the cuff, I don’t have any notes, I’m just talking to y’all. Here’s what I know about millionaires.

This is kind of a fascinating conversation that I’ve been really thinking about and exploring lately. And because I spend a lot of time with my students who are millionaires, and I also spend a lot of time with my colleagues, business associates that are millionaires in masterminds and in business dealings, I want to tell you a few things I’ve learned.

One of the things that I’ve learned is that millionaires are really just ordinary people doing extraordinary things. That is it. We all want to look at other people that are doing extraordinary things and think they must have some special ability.

It’s because they’re attractive, or it’s because they’re charismatic, or it’s because of their education, or it’s because of their age. We want to make a reason to explain them when we’re not at that level. And I just want to tell you it’s nonsense.

Every single person that I have met who has a million dollars in assets, which is how I would define a millionaire, I wouldn’t define a millionaire as someone that makes a million dollars a year because I don’t believe that being a millionaire is just about how much money you make.

I think it’s about how much money you keep and you have in your life. Do you have a comfort level with having money? And so with every millionaire that I meet, I’m astounded by how insecure most of us are about money, and about the ability to keep it, and about how we create it.

And so I have lots of conversations where people feel like they’re imposters and they feel like, “Oh my gosh, this was a fluke, I don’t think I’ll be able to repeat this, I won’t be able to keep this.” And it’s partially because we have this belief that millionaire status is somehow this exceptional thing in the world that only the very special people achieve.

And so when I have many students who get to the millionaire level, they don’t feel any more special. They still feel like themselves. They still feel like they’re doing life like they always have. And so they’re very confused how to reconcile being a millionaire with still being ordinary and still having a 50:50 life, and still having to do all the same things that they’ve always had to do their entire life.

And so I think this is such an interesting thing for everyone to think about who isn’t yet a millionaire and who already is, is that making a lot of money does not make you a different person. It makes you more of who you are. It makes you able to do more of who you are. You evolve into more of yourself by creating more value for the world, but you are still a messy human when you arrive at a million dollars.

So I have been criticized a lot. They’ve written articles about me, criticizing me for telling people that they can make a lot of money as life coaches. They think that it’s irresponsible and that I shouldn’t be telling people that they can make a million dollars.

And I remember I was at an event, I think there was about 300 people there, and this woman raised her hand and she just said, “It’s making me very, very uncomfortable that you keep telling people that they’re capable of making so much money and I think that you’re being a little bit irresponsible in making people believe that that’s possible for them.”

And I said, “I think you’re wrong. I think it’s irresponsible that we tell people the way to live life is to slowly be broke instead of quickly be rich.” We tell people that they have to grind for their money, and it’s not true. We tell people that they have to get paid for their time, and that they can only get paid for their time, and that they have to get a very, very long and very, very expensive college education in order to make money. It’s all lies.

No one seems to be outraged about that, about everybody getting this middle income drain really slowly and painfully. I think that’s outrageous. So this is what I tell my team all the time, I’m like, “Listen, if someone wants to criticize me for something that’s true about me, I’m down. Let the haters come.”

If you want to criticize me because I’m telling people they can make a lot of money, criticize all day. We’re all getting rich though. Bye. I truly believe that I can contribute to raising the percentage of millionaires in the world by the time I’m done. I already have significantly. Significantly done that with my employees, with my students, and with my listeners.

I get lots of emails, lots of letters from people who are just listening to my podcast, and just being in Self-Coaching Scholars and making millions of dollars. So they have told me that I had just given them permission, and they just needed one person to give them permission to do it.

So my point is that becoming a millionaire is not for the extraordinary person. It’s for the ordinary person. And as you become a millionaire, you will still be an ordinary person.

Now, you may argue with me that once you’re a millionaire, you become an extraordinary person. I disagree. I think you’re an extraordinary person inside, but I think everyone’s extraordinary, which makes everybody ordinary, which is confusing.

So I want you to think about every single person listening to this, yes, you, you don’t think this applies to you. Tell me what the reason is you don’t think this applies to you. Some of you just thought, “Oh, I’m too young.” Some of you just thought, “I’m too old.” Some of you just thought, “I’m not smart enough.” Some of you just thought - what? What did you think was your reason why you can’t be a millionaire?

There is no good reason. You do not have to be any different than you are. You have to learn some tactics, you have to change some belief systems, and you have to take some action. But do not keep yourself in a small box of not being a millionaire because someone told you that it wasn’t for you, because I’m telling you it is for you.

How cool would it be if every single person listening to this right now took me seriously and really listened to what I was saying and started to believe that they could do it, and then went out and did it? They would be furious, the people, “Stop telling people they can make a million dollars, it hurts their feelings, makes them feel bad.”

I disagree. I think there are so many people that just need to hear that possibility for themselves. They need to consider that for themselves. I had a woman on one of my webinars the other day and she said, “I don’t even understand what it means that you made 42 million dollars last year. That doesn’t even make any sense. How is that even an amount of money that a person can make in a year?”

And I just said, “I’m so happy that you’re on this call, I’m so happy that you heard this from me, and I want you to consider it for you.”

I am not better than you. I am not different than you. I’m not. And when you tell yourself that, it’s very degrading to you if you tell yourself you can’t do something that is possible for a human being to do. Of course you can.

And listen, I believe that you will have a more evolved, exciting, expansive life if you at least try, if you at least do the work. It’s like what I said in the last podcast. I said if we’re going to hit a recession, let’s use that time to get to work. We know that life ebbs and flows. We know that recessions are part of an economy check.

And if we’re going to have a long life, we’re going to experience true abundance in the economy, we’re going to experience recessions. That’s how the flow works. It’s what we do during those times that matter.

So what if - just give yourself five minutes to consider, what if I’m right? What if before the end of your life, you could be a millionaire? Even if you never considered it. What if you could create a million dollars’ worth of value for the world?

Now, here’s why I love this idea for us. Not just for you. It’s great for you because you’re going to evolve, you’re going to create value, you’re going to feel proud of yourself, and you’re going to have some money, which is so fun. You can buy yourself whatever you want, which is so fun, right?

But in addition to that, we have created momentum around raising the level. I was reading a book recently and they were talking about how the number of millionaires is increasing rapidly. But even more than that, the people that are multimillionaires are increasing even more rapidly.

And I believe it is because once you have earned a million dollars, something happens inside you in your brain where you recognize, “Wait, I can’t believe this was possible for me. This was actually true for me. This is amazing. And why not two million? Why not five million? Why not 10 million? Why not 100 million? Why not a billion?”

And that’s why I think your first million is the hardest to make and everything else after that is so much easier. It is very rare, very rare that you’ll meet a coach who has studied under me that makes a million dollars one year and then makes less the next year. They’re always making more because their belief system has been shattered.

They have proven to themselves what they’re capable of and that capacity just keeps growing. Do not let anyone tell you that you can’t have it. And when you get there, be prepared. It’s not better there than here. I know that many of you have heard me say this before, but I want to repeat it to you because it’s so important.

Your life is always 50:50 and it’s always going to be 50:50. You will trade some things that you’re struggling with now for things that you’ll struggle with then. There will be a tradeoff. But the balance will still be there, and you’ll still be a human, and you’ll still be 100% worthy, and you’ll still feel insecure, and you’ll still doubt yourself, and you’ll still be emotional over things, and you’ll be afraid of different things, but you’ll still be afraid.

But that’s not a reason not to do it. I think that’s the reason to do it. When I sit in my mastermind group, the qualification to be in one of these groups that I’m in is you have to have made at least a million dollars. So everyone in this room isn’t necessarily a millionaire, but they have generated a million dollars in revenue.

And there’s not one person in that room that isn’t still human, that isn’t still afraid, that isn’t still frustrated, that isn’t still hesitant and doubting themselves. The only difference is that they took action. They believed in themselves enough to create a result that was extraordinary.

I’m inviting you to do this. Listen, I get a lot of hate for that invitation. I know a lot of people are mad at me about it. But I care about you enough to keep making it. Because someone right now, and this is real, I want you all to listen to this. Someone right now is going to hear this and say, “Okay Brooke Castillo, I’m going to try. I’m going to do it.” And they’re going to do it.

And they’re going to tell me someday that they listened to this podcast and they gave themselves the chance and now they’re a millionaire. I know for sure it’ll happen. Millions of people that download this podcast, there is at least one of you that this podcast changes your life.

And you know what’s so amazing about that to me? This is part of me creating value. This is part of my work in the world. Can you imagine? My work in the world is to create opportunity and ideas and belief systems that make other people win in their lives.

And when you become a millionaire, you will be able to impact people in a way you can’t now. And you will have become a person that you aren’t now. People will say to me, “But Brooke, you’re just a life coach, why are you always talking about money?”

Listen, when I first started, all I talked about was my weight because that’s what I was focused on. That was what my goal was. And then for a long time, I talked a lot about stopping overdrinking, and for a long time I talked about working on relationships.

And now my goal right now as a life coach is to make 100 million dollars a year and the way that I’m going to do that is by helping you all make a million dollars a year, and help you with your relationships, and your weight, and your emotions, and your life, and your mental health. That is the privilege of my life. And I will not deny that invitation. I will accept it and I will step up to it.

I was having dinner with a friend the other night. She said, “Why are you so confident?” And I said, “Listen, the reason I think I’m so amazing, the reason why I think I’m so extraordinary, the reason why I love myself so much is because I know I didn’t create myself. This is not of my creation, this life that is mine. This is my gift. My life is my gift to me. This is the hand I’ve been dealt, the ingredients I’ve been given. You can be sure I’m going to put those ingredients together to be the most powerful version of myself.”

And in that powerful version, I’m going to heed my call and my invitation and I’m going to encourage you to do yours, no matter how much they hate on us. I listened to a speaker the other day who said, “We’re not afraid of failing. We’re afraid of being judged. And mostly, we’re afraid of judging ourselves.”

I believe this is true. Put it aside, my friends. We’ve got work to do. You’re just an ordinary person, just like me. Don’t give people powers that they don’t have. Don’t give them assets that they don’t come with. You have everything you need. Every single thing you need within you.

There are people that aren’t as smart as you that are millionaires. There are people that aren’t as good looking as you that are millionaires. There are people that aren’t as charismatic as you that are millionaires. There are people who just took action because they didn’t know any better.

One of my girlfriends posted something on Instagram and she said, “There are people that aren’t as smart as you winning because they weren’t smart enough to doubt themselves.” I totally agree with it. I love not knowing how dumb I am.

Now that I’m here, I’m like, I had no business believing I could get here. I’m so glad that I did anyway. I’m so glad that being naive hooked me up. Belief systems, my friend, those are the answer.

Hey, I know that this sound quality’s not awesome because I’m out here walking a trail, but I was thinking about you, I wanted to record this. I love you all, I’ll talk to you next week. Bye.

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