Episode 31 - Building Your Money Muscle with Joan Sotkin

Joan Sotkin is an author, coach, and businesswoman who helps people understand why they do what they do with their money and how to change their financial behaviors. In the 1980’s Joan built her own mail order business selling crystals and making over $30,000 a month, but her lack of business and financial skills led to her downfall and bankruptcy. This led her down the path of learning everything she could about business and financial management, even attending 12-step programs like Debtors Anonymous and Co-Dependents Anonymous. She eventually went on to start her website prosperityplace.com and write her book Build Your Money Muscles: Nine Simple Exercises for Improving Your Relationship with Money, which won two national awards. Joan joins Charlie on the show today to talk about what she has learned over the years and much more. Key Takeaways:01:51 – How Joan got started in her first business.03:25 – Joan reaching the point where she had to give everything away.06:39 – Things that led to Joan’s first business going under.10:13 – Going from being big into the mail order business to learning how to do business using the Internet.12:24 – Differences between starting a business with the Internet readily available and starting one before the Internet era.15:49 – How do we connect on a deep level so that we’re connected and we’re not alone?16:58 – Why it seems like as we becomes more technologically abundant our financial situations get worse.19:34 – The importance of discipline and conscious living in your spending habits. 22:17 – The identity factor. Why do people who are pretty smart make really stupid decisions?24:38 – How we know when our identity factor is kicking in.27:33 – Where all our emotions and feelings attached around money come from and steps we can take to change them. 30:50 – It’s not about the money. It’s about you, your relation to yourself, and your relationship with the world around you.31:15 – What area in Joan’s own relationship with money she is working on right now.32:45 – Why it’s easier for Joan to manage debt than it is for her to manage savings.33:47 – The most unanticipated challenge Joan is currently facing.37:04 – When you love, accept, acknowledge, and appreciate yourself, you will get paid, and you’re going to be living a rich life. Mentioned In This Episode:prosperityplace.comBuild Your Money Muscles: Nine Simple Exercises for Improving Your Relationship with MoneySanta Monica Civic AuditoriumWendy McClellandAOLAmazonGoogleMcKinseySCOREFacebookThe Millionaire Next DoorThe SecretUncertainty, Jonathan FieldsDebtors AnonymousCo-Dependents Anonymous  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.productiveflourishing.com/subscribe