Having Money. Can You?

Back in the office this week after a family trip down to the Florida Keys. We had a good time despite some rainy conditions down there.

Oh, and pretty sure the RV blew a manifold gasket on the final stretch home. Always something with those things. 😂

But, got a ton to catch up on this week.

This morning, I wanted to share some thoughts with you about money. It is a little bit… woo woo perhaps? 😇 But, you may find it thought-provoking. Can you actually HAVE money? And why do some people tend to have it rather easily… while others just can’t seem to make it happen?

Curious to hear what you think.

So, let’s dive in…

Can you HAVE money?

Today, I wanted to talk about money. After all, chances are you want more money. Who doesn’t, right? 🤪 But, I’m gonna get a wee bit philosophical about for a bit.

And I hope it doesn’t make you uncomfortable…

Money is a funny thing. People everywhere get all worked up over it.

My wife and I are not hurting for money. Yet, in our relationship, she’s definitely the cheap one. The idea of spending money just causes her major stress. She will do some rather interesting things and spend serious amounts of time to avoid spending any more money than bare minimum.

But, it isn’t as if she’s weird. 🙂 There are a lot of people like her. But, what it proves is…

One’s ATTITUDE about money isn’t necessarily dependent on how much one has. And I would argue that one’s attitude about it dictates how much you’ll have.

When one tries to hoarde money, it is out of a perceived lack of having it. Thing is… money is EVERYWHERE. It is flowing all around you constantly. The government prints more of it constantly. Every Friday, millions of people around the country cash their paycheck then go out and spend it over the weekend.

There is NO shortage of money. What there is a shortage of is one’s ATTITUDE that they can have it.

Can you HAVE money?

Or do you get all twisted up over it?

Society has this way of training people to be poor. People with money are looked at as greedy pricks. The “filthy rich”, they’re called. Politicians like to rip on rich people and stereotype them. And on the flip side, society tends to prop up the poor. People without money are looked at as victims of society while people with money are greedy SOBs.

I know I may have just pissed you off with that statement, but it is true. In this society, having money is associated with being guilty. Selling in order to make money is associated with being slimey.

So, many people just have an attitude that means they can’t HAVE money.

Others can. Because they realize money is everywhere. That it can be had just by inserting yourself into the flow of money which happens every day.

I mean…. money is nothing but energy. And it is FLOWING LIKE CRAZY every day. People are spending money and giving it to others ALL THE TIME. To get some for yourself, you insert yourself into the flow. You do that by providing something that they want and value and…. they’ll give you some of their money.

It is so simple… yet people make it so complicated.

And, in my line of work, one of the hardest things I deal with has nothing to do with showing people what to do to build their business. It is how to change their attitude.

I mean, when I see a student or a reader get all off their rocker over spending a few bucks per month on hosting…. or $19/month on Aweber for their email marketing…. WHY?!?! Don’t tell me it is a lack of funds! You probably have a mortgage, a car. You probably eat out every now and then. Don’t tell me you can’t afford $19 to start a business.

Why do people get in their own way like that?

It is like being right next to a flowing river and yet acting like you’re dying of thirst.

I know full well there are people out there who legit may not be able to afford $19. But, in all honesty, they should probably have a job. Save a little money for a bit to invest in your new online business. There’s simply no way you’ll be able to do this for nothing. Cheap, yes. But, not nothing.

I’m not sitting here saying I have the answers. I honestly WISH I knew how to help 100% of my students get out of their own way. Usually, the ones that succeed are the ones who don’t do that.

Maybe I’ll figure it out one day.

But, here’s how I see it…

Money is plentiful. It is everywhere.

It isn’t a magical thing. It is nothing but a symbol of energy. And energy flows. It is flowing all around you every day. Loads and loads and LOADS of money.

It can flow to you. If you let it. And if you do something to insert yourself into the flow.

If you cannot flow money, it won’t come to you. If you cannot HAVE money, it will not flow to you. And, when I say “have” here, I don’t mean literally having it in your account. I’m talking about the mental ability to have it without a built-in scarcity. To have it without guilt. To be able to spend it. To be a terminal which flows money like the electricity it is rather than be a place money goes to die.

To make more money at any time, here’s what you do…

1. ​Find where the money is flowing.
2. Find what they need and want.
3. Do something of value that they’ll want. (insert yourself into the flow)
4. Get some of the money. 🙂

But, here’s the funny trick…

To be able to make this happen, you have to be able to flow money, too. If you resist spending it, you’ll resist having it. That doesn’t mean you spend money stupidly, of course. But, you need to be able to do it. To watch people who have day jobs, a house, a car and eat food suddenly act as if $19/month to invest in a new business is unaffordable, then that’s what I mean. You can’t do that and make it.

The first step to having money is to be OK with not having it. To be able to spend it because you don’t have this built-in scarcity that tells you that you can’t get more.

Because you can get more. 🙂

Do you agree with me?

Or do you think I’m a nutball? 🙂

– David

This Week In Concierge

Well frankly, Concierge was rather quiet last week because I was out of town with my family. I replied to some emails and messages. I answered some questions as they came in. But, I didn’t do all that much.

Which just means…. I got my work cut out for me this week. 😇

This week, I’m planning to move forward with the process of bringing on a new in-house developer. Hopefully, a second David. 😎 This way we can add some speed to client projects.

But, coming up this week…

• Helping a client get her membership site to minimum viable product so she can launch mid-week.
• Re-building another client’s site on Kadence
• Doing a Zoom session later in the week to re-build a site on Kadence and show him how to use it as we go
• Launching a new sales page for a client’s local business

That’s just a sample. I’ve got probably at least 10 projects of different sizes pending for various clients.

Hence why I’m looking into a new hire this week. Gotta do what I gotta do. 😇

Oh, one last thing…

I did secure access to the new FluentBoards plugin and it is now available in the Concierge toolkit. Learn more about it here. So, for any clients who might have a need for an in-house project manager that beautifully integrates with other Flu

WordPress Quick Bits

FluentBooking 1.4.2 Launched. FluentBooking has been updated to support integration with FluentBoards. This version also finally has the integration with Elementor, new event triggers for webhooks and a new shortcode to drop the Fluent calendar anywhere you please. Click to read the full changelog.

Astra Gets Header Presets. If you use Astra theme, version 4.7 has been released and now offers header presets. It offers 4 pre-done header layouts so you can just click the one you prefer then customize the details. Convenient.

Themeisle Acquired Redirection for Contact Form 7. This add-on plugin for Contact Form 7 was acquired by Themeisle. Honestly, it seems like a strange purchase. I know Contact Form 7 is popular, but for the life of me I don’t know why. It is a downright POS contact form plugin. Just…. bad. And a major spam magnet. I strongly recommend Fluent Forms instead.

All In One SEO has Launched SEOBoost. The AIOSEO team has launched a new content optimization tool called SEOBoost. Basically, it is another SEO tool. Because the world needs another one. 🤪 But, THIS one is “WPBeginner Verified”. So…. 😜

WordCamp EU Wraps Up. The 2024 Wordcamp EU event is in the books and here’s a wrapup of what happened. Wordcamp US is taking place in September in Portland, OR. And this might be the first WordCamp I attend since, as of now, I’m planning to fly out for it. We shall see.

Avoiding A Membership Site Plugin

So, let me be a bit contrarian for a bit. Well, if you know the toolset I use most of the time for membership sites, this won’t be a suprise.

See, while I build membership sites all the time, I am not generally a fan of using dedicated membership site plugins.

You know… things like Wishlist Member, MemberPress and the like. These plugins are specially built to be membership site plugins. So, when you’re out searching for how best to build a membership site, you’re going to inevitably come across these kinds of plugins.

But, I generally don’t prefer to go that route.

Because I don’t like the bulk these plugins add.

Plus, in most cases, I don’t like how they do things. For instance, the payment options are often a little…. weak. Most of these plugins use membership levels… whereas I think using tags is far more flexible.

So, the tool I use is WP Fusion.

What a lot of people don’t know, though, is that WP Fusion has a FREE version. It is called WP Fusion LITE.

What WP Fusion does is fuses your site with your email marketing CRM. And it works with almost all of them. So, it allows you to sync registered WordPress users with your CRM. And the free version even allows you to lock down content based on tags.

Basically, go to any content you want to lock down for paying members and choose to use WP Fusion to restrict access. Choose which tag(s) are required to unlock access. Then, whenever a logged-in WordPress user has those tags on their profile (in the CRM), it will unlock. Easy peasy.

This approach is usually simpler and more flexible than the membership levels common in most plugins.

Plus, it allows you to use all the power of marketing automation in your CRM (depending on which you use, of course) to do all kinds of pretty nifty things and have it impact what users see on your website simultaneously.

Obviously, the PRO version of WP Fusion integrates with almost everything under the sun and I use it all the time. But, point here is….

The free LITE version is pretty capable, too. And for many, it is adequate to get the job done. And you may not need to use a big membership site plugin at all.

One quick word about Wishlist Member, too…. since I recently had to deal with this plugin again on behalf of a client for WP Speed Fix. Wishlist Member has been around a LONG time and the code-base has grown to become a bit unwieldy. Not only that, it seems elements of it are outright old. I know Wishlist still works for some people, but it is an older performance drag now. There are definitely cleaner ways to build a membership these days…. and for me, WP Fusion is a big part of that.