Moneeka Sawyer is a “joy coach” and creator of the Blissful Real Estate Investor Formula. She puts on the ‘Advice WINGS’ to show how making money and building wealth is a joyous experience. Author of “Choose Bliss: The Power and Practice of Joy and Contentment,” she talks about how to defeat money blocks.
Melinda Wittstock: Welcome to Wings, Moneeka.
Moneeka Sawyer: Hi, Melinda. Thank you so much for having me.
Melinda Wittstock: It’s wonderful to have someone who’s known for being joyous. I mean, and you are. That’s your whole gig, and so … and I can hear it in your laugh. It’s awesome. What inspires your joy?
Moneeka Sawyer: Oh My Gosh, there’s so much that inspires my joy. I just love life, and that’s part of what I teach, right, is how to get to that place where you really love life. But right now, what I’m really excited about and what really inspires me is to empower women especially to build wealth blissfully so they feel joy in that area of their life, because that is something I think a lot of are missing, you know what I mean?
Melinda Wittstock: That’s interesting that you draw a connection between building wealth and bliss. I mean, a lot of people like the idea of money, surely, right? But often, in trying to acquire it, it doesn’t feel necessarily like a joyful experience. And so-
Moneeka Sawyer: Well, yeah.
Melinda Wittstock: … how do you connect these two in your realm, which is real estate?
Moneeka Sawyer: Yeah, so there are a couple of things that I like to tell people about bliss and wealth. First of all, I do not believe that money can buy happiness. However, what I do believe is that money can give us a foundation that makes us feel safe so that we can then focus on being more joyful. Does that make sense?
Melinda Wittstock: It does. I mean, doing the things that you truly were put onto the planet to do … money is … I guess is an enabler of that. Often, we think money is a thing.
Moneeka Sawyer: It is.
Melinda Wittstock: But it’s not really a thing. All it is… is a marker of the exchange of value.
Moneeka Sawyer: Exactly. Exactly, and I love how you called it an enabler. I’m going to use that over and over again, because money really does enable us to be our very best selves, our most joyous selves, our most passionate selves, our most effective selves. So I love that you said it that way. And then, like you also said, people often like money, and they’re pursuing money, and they’re building their businesses. But they’re not doing it in a way that supports the joy in their life.
And this is part of the problem a lot of the times, is they’re doing it in a way that is going towards a goal. But it’s, like I said, not supporting the joy in their life, and so it’s not sustainable. It becomes the piece of their life that they don’t want to do anymore or that’s causing them a huge amount of stress, which then takes away their motivation. It deters from their passion and joy in their life. And so when I talk about blissful wealth, I’m talking about building wealth in a way that supports your joy rather than taking away from it.
Melinda Wittstock: So you should be having fun as you’re making money, is what you’re saying?
Moneeka Sawyer: Absolutely, and so many people don’t, right? So yes.
Melinda Wittstock: Or they confuse it. Maybe it’s a mindset thing; that it’s got to be hard to acquire it. We have so many limiting beliefs about money, but one of them is, “Oh, it’s got to be really … you’ve got to work really hard. You’ve got to suffer to be able to have it,” right?
Moneeka Sawyer: And you know what? Yes, that was my dad’s belief, also. And that’s part of one of those things that I talk about a lot, is those limiting beliefs are the things that determine how we experience life in every area of our life. And so I had to fight my dad’s limiting belief, because he handed that down to me, right? So I had to fight that limiting belief in order to create wealth in a way that was joyful for me, because that was a high priority.
Melinda Wittstock: Wonderful. So as a female entrepreneur and someone who works with women in business, what is your biggest frustration? I mean, is a joyful person allowed to have frustration, and if so, what is that frustration that you have? It’s lurking somewhere in there.
Moneeka Sawyer: Yeah. My biggest frustration in dealing with women entrepreneurs is that they’re not comfortable building wealth for themselves. They seem to feel like … so many people talk about not being deserving. I really don’t think it’s that. They have it in their mind that if they’re giving, they should not be receiving. And they really … they give a lot of lip service to, “I know I have to be filled up in order to give my best.” But it really is lip service. They don’t internalize it. And so they don’t take care of themselves in a way that really supports them and gives them strength so that they can go out and be the very biggest, most beautiful, most impactful women that they can be.
Melinda Wittstock: That is so true. We spend so much time … and we’re acculturated to do this, to just give, give, give, give, give. But we do find it hard, sometimes, to receive. Getting those two things in balance, the giving and the receiving-
Moneeka Sawyer: Right.
Melinda Wittstock: … is an interesting challenge for a lot of us.
Moneeka Sawyer: Exactly, and money is a piece of that, right? I shouldn’t be receiving all this money, but you should, because if you do, look at what you can do with it, right? And but it’s hard to get through to people that it’s a good thing.
Melinda Wittstock: You can give even more. So-
Moneeka Sawyer: That’s right.
Melinda Wittstock: Speaking of giving, what are your top three pieces of advice that you want to share with our listeners today?
[tweet_box design=”default” float=”none”]When life brings us challenges, a foundation of wealth allows you to make decisions based on what’s best for you rather than what you can afford. #WingsPodcast #WomeninBusiness @MoneekaSawyer[/tweet_box]
Moneeka Sawyer: Okay, here they are. So the first one is, do build wealth to support your life. When life brings us challenges, a foundation of wealth allows you to make decisions based on what’s best for you rather than what you can afford. So that’s my first piece. And then, number two is always understand that you have a choice. We cannot control everything that goes on in the world around us, but we do have absolute control over how we respond. And how you respond is the thing that you have a choice over.
Melinda Wittstock: That is very true.
Moneeka Sawyer: Yeah. And then, the next-
Melinda Wittstock: It really is. No, it’s so true, and I mean, I just … I was thinking there. There was a little pause there because I was thinking that, as entrepreneurs, by definition, most of our day…we’re dealing with things that we can’t control, that are beyond our control. We can maybe try and control them, but the only thing you can really do at the end of the day is control your own reaction. So I think that’s … and also, even when things go wrong, where’s the opportunity? Where’s the silver lining-
Moneeka Sawyer: Right.
Melinda Wittstock: … in that?
Moneeka Sawyer: And that’s absolutely right. And the thing is that if you have choice … if you get that you have choice, that gives you so much more power over the decisions that you make and the way that you live your life, because you’re no longer at mercy of what’s going on in your business or around you.
Melinda Wittstock: Ah, that is so true. So that brings us now to … look, I’m just agreeing with everything you say, because I feel so joyful. So … no, but … right?
Moneeka Sawyer: Yeah.
Melinda Wittstock: It makes so much sense when you hear it, and yet, often, with these pieces of advice, it’s easy to hear it. It’s easy to agree with it, but it’s just a little bit harder sometimes to just integrate that into our lives.
Moneeka Sawyer: Right. That is true, but I think that so much of it is just getting in the habit of reminding yourself that these things are important. I think another thing that we do as entrepreneurs is we get so caught up in what’s going on in the moment, and we haven’t developed the habit of thinking things through in … I don’t want to say a rational way, but in a supportive way. So when you’re in the middle of a fire or something horrible is happening, it’s really hard to take a deep breath and just say, “I have a choice here. What choice do I want to make,” right, for example?
So a lot of it is just creating the habit, by doing this repetitively, of reminding yourself, “I have a choice. I want to enjoy this journey. I know that this is happening for a reason and that I’m going to make the very best out of it, because that’s what I do.” And as entrepreneurs, that’s what we need to do, right?
Melinda Wittstock: We always surely do. So that takes us to advice number three.
Moneeka Sawyer: Yes, so advice number three is enjoy the journey. I find so much of the time, as entrepreneurs, we’re pushing so hard to get to our goal that we forget to enjoy the journey. And can I tell you a really quick story about this?
Melinda Wittstock: Absolutely.
Moneeka Sawyer: I was actually in Iceland a couple of months ago, and we went out to see a glacier, and the glacier was a two and a half hour drive to get there and a two and a half hour drive to get back. So we drove out there, and the glacier was absolutely stunning. But we did five hours of driving and we were only at the glacier for a half hour. So what if I had just been driving really fast, pedal to the metal, facing straight forward, and just going to that glacier, and I just missed everything around me? What kind of trip would that have been? I get a half hour of joy and five hours of kind of misery, right?
And what if, instead, we do what I did, which is look at the scenery, take a couple of stops, get some really good pictures, read about what’s going on? If you’re able to enjoy that journey, even though you’re really headed to a particular place, if you’re able to enjoy that journey, then you get to enjoy the entire process, not just when you get to the goal.
And the thing is this. As entrepreneurs, usually, we’re really driven. So we go from goal to goal to goal, but the journey to each of those goals is significantly longer than the amount of time we spend excited about having achieved the goal. So if you’re not able to enjoy the journey, you spend most of your time unhappy, and you’re kind of committing to only very short periods of happiness. Does that make sense?
Melinda Wittstock: It absolutely does, and to add to that, really, our power is in the present moment. We’re making our future right now, and so to be fully awake in that moment and really enjoying and being really grateful for that journey and grateful for ourselves and those around us really … Not only does it make you have a much more pleasant life, but I think it really powers your businesses, as well. It gives your business a real lift to come at each day with that feeling of gratitude.
Moneeka Sawyer: Yeah, and I think it keeps it sustainable, because if you’re really enjoying the whole journey, you’re able to stick with it, right? So I think as far as the sustainability of a business and really being able to stick with it, that’s a really important piece, is to make sure you’re enjoying the journey and staying present.
Melinda Wittstock: This is so true. So Moneeka, as we wrap up, how can people find you if they want to work with you?
Moneeka Sawyer: So I love to get emails from people, so people can email me at Moneeka, which is M-O-N-E-E-K-A, at Core Bliss Life. And that’s Core, C-O-R-E, Bliss, B-L-I-S-S, Life.com. And I have a special gift for your listeners to show them sort of how I’ve built this foundation of wealth that then supports my bliss and supports my life, and that report … they can get it for free at blissfulinvestorreport.com/wings.
Melinda Wittstock: That’s wonderful. Moneeka, thank you so much. I’ll make sure that that’s in the show notes, and thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today.
Moneeka Sawyer: Oh, it was so much fun. Thank you for having me, Melinda.
