Your wealth mindset doesn't show up when you hit bigger numbers. I know because I've watched clients make 50K months and feel exactly the same as they did at 5K. Same pressure. Same reactivity. Same internal script of "how do I make sure I don't lose this?"

That's rich thinking. And it follows you to every income level.

In today's episode I'm pulling apart the difference between rich and wealthy and why most of us are actively building for one whilst telling ourselves we want the other. I'm sharing a story about a pair of lost Gucci shoes that perfectly illustrates how a rich mindset and a wealth mindset show up differently in real time. And I'm walking you through two questions that most entrepreneurs have never thought to ask themselves about the money they're making.

Because here's what I've seen working with hundreds of clients across different industries. Your relationship with money doesn't change just because the number grows. If you're filtering every business decision through "how do I not lose this?" instead of "how do I build wealth that actually supports my life?" then you're playing a game you'll never win. No matter how big the months get.

Topics covered on Wealth Mindset:

1. Why does making more money still feel exactly the same and what does your wealth mindset actually have to do with it?
2. What is the real difference between rich and wealthy and which one are you building for right now?
3. How does rich thinking keep you stuck in reactive mode no matter how much revenue you bring in?
4. What does a lost pair of Gucci shoes reveal about how a rich mindset operates versus how wealth operates?
5. If your relationship with money hasn't changed since your 5K months, what exactly needs to shift?
6. How to build wealth by asking two questions most entrepreneurs have never considered about the money they're making.
7. What luxury brands know about longevity that most entrepreneurs are ignoring and how it connects to a wealth mindset.

Connect with Rachel:

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Calibration Mastermind: https://rachelpearson.kartra.com/page/Calibration-mastermind

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Related episodes you may enjoy:

The Premium Positioning Strategy Luxury Brands Use To Attract Buyers Who Don't Shop Around [ep. #1]

Why Premium Clients Resist You (And What They're Actually Seeking Instead) [ep. #2]

When More Money Doesn't Change How It Feels

It goes deeper than that. I think most established entrepreneurs are actively building for rich whilst telling themselves that they want to be wealthy. And that is the reason business can still feel heavy when you are making a lot of money. 40K, 50K months, 100K months. Because it's not really about the money. It's about what the money means to you.

This is what we're going to explore today. I'm not going to hand you a definition of what being rich is or what being wealthy is. It's going to be subjective. But I want to pull it apart, and I want you to start thinking about the difference between rich and wealthy and how it impacts the decisions you're making in your business.

Stay till the end as there is a download for this one. I will be guiding you through how to think about the prompts that are going to change whether you are building for rich or building for wealth.

What Is Rich Thinking and Why Does It Follow You?

But what a lot of people don't talk about is that rich is not just the output. It is also the operating mode that you are building from. Rich thinking tends to be reactive. Every decision is being filtered through "How do I make more money? How do I cover this expense? How do I replace that client? How do I hit this number again next month?"

The thing is, working with hundreds of clients across lots of different types of industries, that questioning doesn't change as the number grows. You could be making 5K a month. You could be making 50K a month and be running on the same internal script. The outgoings get bigger. Maybe the expectation gets bigger as you're making more money. But the starting point can be the same. "How do I manage this money? How do I react to what is in front of me? How do I keep going?"

And that is what can create the pressure, the expectation, and responsibility of "I'm making this much money now. How do I make sure I don't lose it?"

"I'm Making More Money Than Ever. So Why Does It Feel Exactly the Same?"

That's a phrase I hear a lot. And I think this question cracks open this whole discussion we're having today. Because if more money doesn't change how it feels, then the feeling isn't about the money amount. It's about the way that you're holding it. It's about the operating system that sits underneath it. It's about your relationship with money itself.

So What Does a Wealth Mindset Actually Look Like?

Now, a wealth mindset is harder to pin down because it doesn't fall into a neat definition. It's going to be so subjective based on what your idea of success looks like, what your vision is for your life, what your vision is for your business.

You can feel wealthy in so many different ways that are not just related to how much money you make. And that is one of the key differentiators when we look at the difference between rich and wealthy.

The Gucci Shoes Story That Explains Everything

I went to a really nice hotel in London recently to host a client strategy weekend. We had a beautiful time in a luxury hotel. We did work. We did work, I promise. We did strategy. We looked at a whole business model. We spent two days together. And I thought this is the perfect opportunity for me to take along one of my Christmas presents, which was a pair of Gucci shoes that my husband had bought me. These shoes are incredible. They are beautiful. They're worth around 1,500 pounds.

I thought, why not take these shoes along? Until I realised that I'd left them in the hotel room.

I rang the hotel straight away. I logged a ticket for the lost shoes, and they came back quite quickly and said, "They're not here."

I knew those shoes were there. I knew I had been nowhere else apart from that hotel room, onto the train, with my one bag. They had to be there. But the panic was really starting to set in. I didn't want to tell my husband because I wanted to figure this out on my own. But I got to the point where I was so distracted I had to tell him.

And he was completely calm.

Rich Mindset vs Wealth Mindset in Real Time

First of all, he thought in relative value. The shoes are expensive. They are not shoes that I would wear every day. But relative to everything else in terms of how he spends, how we spend as a family, what we own, what actually matters in our world, they're just shoes. He didn't collapse into the loss of it. He contextualised it.

Imagine this in a business scenario. If a client doesn't sign that you were hoping would sign, or a client doesn't re-sign into one of your programmes, or you lose out on a project. Rich thinking says, "Well, that's 1,500 pounds I need to make up. That's 1,500 pounds that's not in my bank account this month."

A wealth mindset puts it into proportion. It looks at, "Okay, what are the other opportunities I have in my business right now? This is one opportunity out of many more. This is one person out of an abundance of clients, people, opportunities that I can impact, that I can help, that I can serve. I am not make or break based on this one person saying yes or no."

When you put it into context with a wealth mindset, there is more than enough. There are multiple opportunities for you to access.

There Is Always a Next Move

There wasn't any spiral. It was simply, there is always a next move.

That is the difference. With a wealth mindset, you assume that there is always a next move. A rich mindset gets stuck on the loss and tries to fix the problem that has already happened, rather than looking at how we can move on because I know and I trust that there is always a next move.

What the Most Successful Entrepreneurs Know About Loss

Three years later, I was heading up the marketing for the same concept in a different market, but with the same proposition. It had taken all of the learnings from those three years prior and was going to try it again.

And this time, because it looked at the market conditions, had made changes, had learned from what had happened before, this business is still around six years later. It is now valued at multiple hundreds of millions and is growing at a rapid rate.

The key difference with people that have this wealth mindset is that they are not looking at "I need to make the money work." Yes, there are realities of business. Yes, we have to make cash flow in our business. I'm not sitting here saying just always have a positive mindset and the money will fall into your lap. That's not reality.

But your intention, how you approach whether you are trying to make money from a rich mindset or whether you are looking from a wealth mindset, will impact how you make that money, how much money you make, and how you hold it.

How Rich Thinking and Wealth Mindset Approach Problems Differently

As you make more money, you will still have issues to solve. Those issues will come with more responsibility. They will often come with managing a team or external circumstances. You still have months that go completely sideways.

If you are looking for solutions because you assume that they exist, then you're not scrambling around because you're afraid that they won't. When you start to react because you're afraid that there isn't another opportunity for you, you are subconsciously capping the growth of your business and other opportunities that could be there, but you're just not seeing right now.

What Luxury Brands Know About How to Build Wealth

The key question that luxury brands think about, which is what I see reflected in a wealth mindset, is that the way brands make money is as important as what they're making. And I think there's something in that for how we think about our businesses as well. This is part of understanding how to build wealth that lasts, not just income that spikes.

Bringing This Into Your Business Decisions

If you are saying yes to every client who can pay, that is orientated around a rich mindset. That's building for rich. And sometimes we do need the cash flow. But if you consistently build like that month after month and you're just taking on any client, even though you know they're not the right client for this offer, then that will lead to inconsistency. You are one quiet month away from it feeling like everything you've built is just held together with string.

The Two Questions That Change How You Build Wealth

The question you've probably already answered is "How much do I want to make?" Whether you've answered that monthly or over the next five years, you've probably got a target. A figure in place for how much you want to make in your business.

But what I want to ask you is two extra questions. The first is, "What do you want that money to do for your life?" The second is, "Does the way that you are making it allow you to achieve that?"

You could say that you want the money to be building more flexibility in your life so that you can travel or spend more present time with your children, or just spend some time on your own. But the way that you are earning it right now, the way that you are making that money, is filling up your calendar. Doing events that actually take a lot of capacity. Then leaving you each month looking at how to build up your longer term recurring revenue.

50K Months Mean Nothing If You Can't Enjoy Them

A wealth mindset doesn't ask "How much do I want to make?" It asks, "How much do I want to make, what do I want that money to do for me, and does the way I'm making it support me?"

Maybe it doesn't require that. Maybe it simply requires that you ask a different question around what are you building this for? Where are you putting your time? Where are you putting your energy?

Building for Rich vs Building for Wealth Changes Everything

If you build for rich, then you will evaluate everything on revenue impact. "Will this make me more money?" That is a rich mindset filter.

If you are building for wealth, you shift the filter to look at "Does this protect my capacity? Does this strengthen what I'm building long term?" And that will impact the way you're making decisions every single day in your business. How you're spending your time. Where you're putting your energy. What you prioritise. What you let go. What you delegate. What you just don't care about anymore.

There Is No Single Right Answer, But There Is a Better Question

I think the core question is about what do you want to focus on next? And there is no wrong or right answer. You can continue to build for rich. You can make a lot of money. And there will be seasons where that is exactly what needs to happen.

But if you are a woman who is wanting to build more wealth and is wanting to get more intentional with what that money does for you, then let's ask a different question. Not "How much can I make?" but "How can I make my money work for me?" That is how to build wealth that actually fits your life.

Until then, I'm Rachel Pearson, and this is Rich Work.