For the most part, men have a vastly different mindset around money than women do. But let’s face it, with every norm, there is always an exception so this is NOT me trying to paint every man with the same brush, nor every woman with the opposite brush. Men typically behave differently when it comes to business.
Although I primarily work with women, I do work with a few men as well. From experience, I can tell you that there is a substantial difference in how they run their businesses and approach money and mindset.
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1.) Men don’t care what you think.
Typically, men are quite unattached to what people think and say about them. When I have conversations with women, often I’ll hear things like, “what will people think if I charge that much?” or “what will people think if I put a picture of myself on my website or my business card?” Another super common one is, “what will people think if I haven’t got enough experience in this thing yet?” Women worry WAY too much about what other people may or may not think.
2.) Men DO NOT ask permission to spend money.
They don’t look at a business opportunity and say, “I need to talk to my wife first.” Nor do they ask their wife for permission to buy tickets to a sports game. They don’t ask permission to invest money in themselves but yet women do this all the time!
If you are making your own money, YOU get to choose how you spend it. Don’t wait for anyone to give you permission. Too often, we give our power away and we seek permission or approval from the wrong people to live our lives the way that we want.
3.) They charge as much as they can get, not the minimum that they think people will pay.
That’s a HUGE difference. I hear women say things like: “I’m not sure if people will pay that much.” We play small when it comes to asking for what we’re worth. We diminish our worth and the amount of money that we make because we’re afraid to ask for what we deserve to be paid in our business.
You don't want to be the average industry standard. You want to be stellar in your game. #Business Click To TweetCharge what you know your value is. If you don’t know what your value is, you need to start asking people about the value of what you offer so that you can build confidence in your own worth.
4.) Men aren’t afraid to ask for raises and ask for more money.
Women rarely ask for more money. In fact, in my entire life, I can only think of ONE woman who has asked me for more money, and the rest have always been men.
5.) Men aren’t afraid to take risks.
When there is a job opportunity inside of a corporation and there are five prerequisites to apply for the job, men will apply even if they only have half of one! Women need to be masters at all five before they’ll take the chance and apply for the opportunity. We are afraid to take risks. Guys take risks all the time. They don’t take it personally if they don’t get the job, but women, we’re afraid of rejection.
We have got to get over this! If you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect other people to believe in you? Often the things that you least expect to work out turn out to be beautiful and magical opportunities in your life.
People are looking for people that have the confidence to ask for more money when they are working really hard and doing a good job. If you have never asked for a raise, (and you have a job) I challenge you to ask for a pay increase this week.
6.) Men are not afraid to utilize their resources.
They’re not afraid to name-drop about the guys that they hang out with, the people they keep company with or the things they do. They’re also not afraid to reach out to one of their guy friends and ask for help. Women, on the other hand, are resistant to name-dropping because they’re worried what people will think and they also have a really hard time asking for help.
Women will give and give and give until they’ve got nothing left, but are the LAST people to reach out and ask for help. Why is that?
I know because when my book came out last year, I was afraid to ask people for help. I realized that I was doing a disservice to them because when you show up and help others all the time, they actually take great pleasure in doing something to help you back.
Asking for help is not a weakness. Start leveraging opportunities and stop being afraid to speak up and ask for what we want despite the fear of rejection.
You are meant to play big, not small.
The next time you catch yourself waiting or asking permission or assuming that people don’t want to help you, I want to challenge you to remember this blog and to act exactly the opposite way that you were intending. I want to encourage you to be brave and courageous and to take risks and be bold and be all that you were destined to be and to borrow a little bit of courage from the way men handle things. Because honestly ladies, waiting is no fun!
It’s time to take control of your life, your way, and get what you want.
Leave me a comment with how you’re going to adjust your mindset to think like a man based on one of these 6 examples above. Are you going to take a risk? Are you going to increase your fees? I want to know.