Shit for brains…

 It’s interesting to me, out of all the women that I have spoken with in the last two months for WBWTR’s interview series there was something that Barbara Stanny mentioned that still gives me pause.  Barbara Stanny for her book Secrets of Six-Figure Women interviewed hundreds of high earning women and discovered that nearly all of the women she interviewed felt as though they were living a charlatan’s life.

All the women interviewed have a six figure income and almost all the women divulged feelings of fraud. They felt that they would be found out or discovered for not being as smart or intelligent as others throught they were. It resonates for a lot of women…feelings of shame.  And you know what? That’s just a damn shame! I think however that the more experienced you get and the more you age the easier it is to expose those types of feelings. There is an incredible vulnerability in exposing it that all women can relate to.

In the WBWTR interviews with women there were a lot of moments where we talked about what was shameful to us… as women. Going through a foreclosure, having to declare bankruptcy, having to rebuild credit, making the wrong investment decisions, not choosing the right broker or partner, not thinking ahead, not saving enough.  The list goes on.  When I told the “six-figure women” story to a friend over drinks and I confessed to the same feelings, she cried. She cried she said because it was the first time she heard another woman saying the same thing she’s felt for years.

There’s no shame here at Women Building Wealth. We strongly believe that you learn from the mistakes you make which is why we always ask the women in our interviews about the pitfalls and mistakes she’s made. There is power in our stories and we lead by example. Not a one of us has done anything perfectly. Our success comes from our failures and once you get that you’ll really get that there is no right answer and that you’ll make mistakes especially in real estate. 

Michelle Lenahan, in our interview series went through a foreclosure with her family, Saman Dias lost her home and had to rebuild her life and her credit, Barbara Stanny lost all her money and had to start over, Lynnette Khalfani had enormous debt, Leslie Nelson Bell lost her husband and had to rebuild her financial life. They each questioned if they were smart enough, did they know enough, what if they weren’t able or couldn’t. Same theme different woman.

Don’t buy into the crap that you really don’t know anything, or that your not smart enough or that someone will find out how stupid you really are. If you’re reading this you know you’re not and you just need a nudge in the right direction. Look around you. There are women out there building wealth every day and inspite of whatever it is that she’s facing.

Don’t buy into the crap.

Check out the interview page.

We are working diligently to get the interviews uploaded.