Do you know and understand your money personality?

Emily King is a Wealth and Abundance coach who helps women make more income and impact doing the work they absolutely love. She is sharing with us the 8 money personalities or archetypes that we have as individuals. So, let’s dive in!

Ashley: I am excited for our listeners to hear this because I truly believe that there’s so much knowledge out there about money mindset that we haven’t tapped into. I know that you have been researching and doing work around the eight money personalities and how that impacts our business. So, can you sort of unpack that for us?

Emily: A couple of years ago, I learned about this training on money personalities. I had already been doing this money mindset coaching as it was. So, I took this training, got certified in it and it was fascinating and really liberating. Any awareness that we find out about ourselves can be really liberating. To better understand yourself and not make yourself wrong with different habits that we have.

Each money personality is very in depth, so I’ll give the high-level view on them. With all these archetypes, we focus on the top three. You might find that you have aspects of all of them, or just two or three.

#1 The Alchemist

The alchemist is that person that has a million ideas a minute, and just loves to contribute. With any money personality, there’s the amazing gift of it, then there’s also what we call the shadow. It isn’t a bad thing. It’s just something to be aware of, which is where the money mindset money blocks come in. The alchemist has so many brilliant ideas, and they’re amazing idea generators who want to contribute to the world. Sometimes it’s really hard for them to receive money for their ideas because it comes so natural to them. They might find themselves doing things for free, or not really following through on projects, because they might have another idea the next day that they want to run with. So really allowing themselves to receive for their amazing gift is key with the alchemist.

#2 The Accumulator

On the opposite side of the spectrum is the accumulator, which is that inner banker.

• Loves to save money
• Feels a lot of security from money
• Responsible with their money

They want to follow up on invoices and be really diligent and safe with their money. The challenge with the accumulator is trusting themselves to spend their money and invest in themselves.

#3 The Romantic

A classic trait of the romantic is you’ll hear them saying something like I deserve it. They might buy themselves something nice or splurge on something and say, “I deserve it”. Like work hard, play hard kind of thing. Out of each money personality, I really envy romantics. The joy and the pleasure that they have with money and truly just letting themselves indulge in all the opportunities and experiences that money can provide them.

Now that’s not to say that they can’t save. If there’s something they want, like a down payment for a home, a piece of equipment, they’ll save for it. However, they’ll typically find themselves back at zero. Automating savings for romantics is really important, kind of like out of sight, out of mind. So that it doesn’t feel like a loss to them. In short, it’s important for Romantics to pay more attention to the financials.

Find a way to let saving be a fun and exciting adventure. Versus feeling like a chore and this boring thing that someone’s making you do.

Ashley: My money personality is a bit more romantic, but with my business finances, I feel like I’m definitely more frugal. Especially now, wanting to invest in my business and really thinking bigger picture. Stepping into the role as CEO, and not always spending all my money. Because, for so long, my mindset was that in order to be a better photographer, I need this better camera. I need this better lens. Or I need X, Y and Z and I wasn’t content with what I had. In order for me to say, “Okay, let me max out my capabilities. Let me learn”. I just feel like now my mindset is much different than it used to be, as an earlier entrepreneur. Do you find that happens? Like people change as they evolve, right? Their archetype and money personality changes?

Emily: I love your story and I love your awareness of it.

In the money mindset world, we call that like the shiny object syndrome.

Where you think that next thing is going to be the thing that has your business excel. I love how you took that moment to just be like, no, what I have is enough. And I’m going to utilize this to the max and then proceed once I’ve used that. For example, accumulator is still one of my top archetypes. But probably, I would say 10 years ago, if not less, I was living in the shadow side of it.

I was very, very tight with my money and so I’ve shifted where yes. I still am very responsible, I still love the safety of it. Having money gives me that sense of security. But in the same breath, I also really have learned how to trust investing in myself. I really had to just take a step back and lean back into that trust. So yes, to answer your question, can they change and evolve. Absolutely. And that’s the beauty of it, is this awareness of it. Then allowing ourselves to really be compassionate and nonjudgmental of not making ourselves good or bad around our money.

#4 The Ruler

Next we have the ruler which is my top money personality. I really love the ruler; the ruler is the inner Empire builders. They also share a bit of the similarities with the accumulator, in the sense that they love numbers. The ruler gets some validation from the numbers in their bank. The money in their bank account is a validation of their success. They also tend to be these people who have big visions and big dreams and big goals. Once they hit a goal, they’re like alright, amazing, next! What else can we do? Which is a fantastic thing! But take in the journey and don’t be so quick to jump to the next big thing. Really slowing down, taking it in and really, essentially, being kind to ourselves.

#5 The Connector

The next money personality is the connector. The connector shares similar qualities to the alchemist, in the sense that they’re all about giving back. Money can sometimes feel a bit icky to them, but the connector is a true relationship creator. They have incredible long-term relationships with people. Where they can get tripped up is they like to put financial decisions on others. They might have a business partner, or partner at home, who takes care of all the financial decisions. That’s fine and dandy! But when they turn a blind eye and aren’t completely aware of it, it can lead to troublesome situations.

I’ve spoken to women who are running million-dollar businesses. They are doing so many wonderful things and not taking $1 in salary. Because they’re in this ignorance is bliss with the money and they just want to keep giving back. So really taking time to get connected with the numbers and compensate yourself for your contribution is important.

Another way where connectors kind of get tripped up as well is like everyone’s their friend. When it comes to friend and family discounts and doing things for free, we want to give back. But really knowing that these people want to pay you, it doesn’t have to be icky. Relationships can also involve financial transactions.

People want to pay you for your service, so allowing them to is a big thing for connectors.

Ashley: I have spoken to so many mama photographers who feel bad for charging higher prices, because they’re like, well, I remember when I couldn’t afford photos. They want to be the person that provides the inexpensive photos because they care about giving these people that experience. Do you have any advice for those people?

Emily: Absolutely. So first of all, I would say take a step back to see financially what one needs. Take a practical look at financially, what do I need to be compensated with this business to keep it going? The last thing we want is for you to not be financially compensated enough and have to close your business. Now they don’t get to do any giving at all and they are taken away from their passion of photography.

There are a lot of ways to give that won’t take 100% of your time, and still be compensated.

For example, a photographer could do a special promo where they offer 20-minute photo shoots for families at a discount. Or they could create a free video training that teaches people how to get better pictures of their family. Whatever it might be. This is a great way to serve people who maybe can’t afford your services. But not have you feeling that kind of resentful or drained energy.

Ashley: I actually recently had a mentor of mine point something out to me that I think is really important to share with our audience, and then I’d love your feedback on it as well. Going through my financials, we saw the time I was giving and the low amount of money I was receiving. She said, “I know that you have this giving heart, I know that you want to be this person. However, have you thought about the impact it’s having at home? How much time and energy you are spending away from your family?”

“Is that who you want to be, without getting the financial freedom exchange?”

I had never thought of it in that way, and I was like, you’re right. I am giving so much time, so much energy, so much of my physical resources. I’m not having the same energy and excitement with my family because I’m so emotionally and physically drained. How do you help your clients figure this out? Because I know that it’s not just about financial gain. It’s also about your time and energy gain.

Setting Boundaries

Emily: Yes, really having those boundaries are important. But some really great practical advice around this comes from another photography client of mine from a couple years ago. She runs a beginner photography course and has hundreds of followers, so you can imagine that in her inbox, she gets all these questions. So instead of giving up all her time answering all these DMs, a real simple strategy was coming up with a membership with different elements to it. Like having a Q&A each month. From there, it made it really easy to have a loving boundary that served her, protected her energy, and made sure she was available for family, but also helped the client too.

So, if a random client reached out to her, saying can you help me with XYZ that related to photography, her response, instead of feeling bad and feeling the urge to answer, she could go back and say, “I love this question! I have an amazing membership that’s only 45 bucks a month. Every single month we do a Q &A and we’ve actually answered this in last month’s Q&A. Would love to have you in there if you want to give it a go! Here’s the link to sign up. Hopefully we’ll see you in there.” One could argue it’s really an inexpensive investment to get an answer to a question. It also saves her energy, and then it serves them in that they’re going to get a ton of help in this membership.

Reflect on those activities or things that you’re doing daily, that really take a lot of your time and energy from that freedom that you desire.

Just take a step back and ask yourself, is there a leveraged way that I can still be of service and giving, but in a way that’s much more efficient.

The Brain Picker People

Ashley: What other advice would you give to give someone instead of doing a membership? Because I get people all the time that are like, oh, I’d love to pick your brain about this. You have those conversations with people and, you genuinely want to be nice, but then it ends up being a free mentoring session. Could you give listeners a phrase, or just a friendly reply maybe, that we can use?

Emily: There’s a couple of options because I used to deal with that. Someone will DM me and be asking for full on coaching in my inbox. Sometimes what I do is if somebody sends me a DM, I’ll acknowledge it and I’ll say, that’s actually a really great idea for a training that I think can really help tons of people. So, I’ll say thanks so much for that question. I’m actually going to bank it and maybe..

• Do a training on that
• Write a blog about it
• Make a workbook or guide

The second thing could be acknowledging it, thank you for your question, so common. You could say I can totally help you with that. It should only take maybe 10, 15 minutes to go over that with you. If you want, I do have 20-minute pick my brain sessions for, say, $50, or $20 or $40, or whatever it might be. If you want to book that, here’s the link. When I first started my business years ago, I found there was a lot of pick my brain folks out there who really, at the end of the day, didn’t respect my time. When I would respond with something like, here’s a link to have a quick call and if you want here’s an inexpensive option to work with me, they just ghosted.

It felt really empowering on my end, and not only respecting my time, but respecting the clients that were investing in me.

Out of respect for my clients who are paying for this service to have this access to me. This is something that I direct people to so they can book a one-on-one session with me. Then to the point earlier about having free trainings, if there was a blog post I did, or a training I had done previously, I could direct them to that.

#6 The Nurturer

The next money personality is the nurturer, which is the inner sponsor. The nurturer does appreciate and respect money. They’re actually not too bad with receiving money and being financially responsible, but sometimes there can be this guilt to over give for every dollar that you bring in. They’re a very naturally generous person and they really just want to nurture others and have others feel good.

But it can really impact their boundaries and actually, referring back to the DM’s and people inboxing them with questions, they feel this guilt to serve everyone and put themselves last. Then financially, the nurturer can be that person that people lean on to borrow money from, and then the nurturer will never follow up with them. They can find themselves in sticky situations like that, where they just feel so blessed to have, whether it be finances, or whatever. That the giving can sometimes get them into trouble and get them into that resentment zone where they’re giving so much. The nurturers are amazing.

• Generous
• Give amazing value
• Very loyal
• Devoted
• Reliable

It’s just about finding that balance of creating boundaries, and a powerful way that shows you are really caring for yourself and for others.

#7 The Maverick

Another archetype out there is the maverick, the inner rebel with a cause. They’re attracted to the get rich opportunities.

• Willing to take financial risk for potential big wins
• Love to stand out in the crowd
• Have courage and tenacity when it comes to generating income
• Stubborn, in a good way, they don’t cave to the opinions of others

Sometimes they can go to the extreme with this last one. Maybe developing a gambling addiction, or getting caught in the feeling of needing to win approval from others. Or even secrecy around their money, because they are taking such big financial risks, that they don’t want to tell their husband or their partner what they’re doing.

There can be this two-sided relationship for this money personality with money. Where on one side, they love it, they love the enjoyment of taking that risk.

But on the flip side of it, they may have that secrecy or shame going on behind the scenes that they’re not telling anyone about.

Maverick is actually my number one, accumulator is my number three. I do love the risk, but it’s balanced well with the accumulator, the responsible one.

It’s balanced well, in the sense that my husband’s money personality, his last archetype, is Maverick. He really needs the facts, he needs the safety and the security of knowing what I’m doing financially. So, I’m not living in the shadow side of secrecy around our money and that kind of thing.

I remember one of the first times I did a big coaching investment for a mastermind. I told my husband how much it was, and he kind of just look at me, like, what have you done? Well, I said the last time I invested in this coach, my business grew like tenfold. So just imagine what’s going to happen this time. That really calmed him down and he agreed that the business did go from like zero to 100 the last time I worked with this coach. So that really gave him faith and trust all was going to be well, and it was. It was an amazing experience.

Partner Isn’t On Board

Ashley: What was it like the first time that you took that investment, and you didn’t have anything to show him? Because I know a lot of people right now that are like, “Yes, but you have something to show. What if I want to make this initial investment, and my husband is not on board, no we’re not doing that.” What advice would you have for them?

Emily: I will admit, the first investment I made with this coach, I was in the shadow side of secrecy. I did not tell my husband at the time; it was my own personal money that was being invested. So, I really was personally taking the responsibility, if this doesn’t pan out, I might need to go take out some line of credit to pay for this, that kind of thing. I did tell him eventually that I invested in this coach. But how do I get that evidence, I like to say stretch, don’t splatter.

Meaning maybe it’s not a $10,000 investment that they start with, to go to their partner and be like hey I’ve just done this. Maybe it’s a $1,000 investment. Or maybe for some people it might even be a $100 investment.

Where they really start to build that trust and that faith within themselves of okay, I’m going to invest in myself.

This feels like a stretch, it’s not a splatter where we’re going to be in 10s of 1000s of dollars in debt. Finding that sweet spot is what I recommend and, if at the end of the day it doesn’t feel great, then maybe pick something else. If something’s not feeling totally aligned, reevaluate. You don’t have to always dive into the big investment. In my case, being the maverick, I can do it a little more easier than another type of archetype, or money personality, like the accumulator. But, if somebody is on the extreme of the accumulator, then they will be freaking out doing certain investments.

I typically when potential clients of mine say, “I need to run it by my husband or just think on it”, I’ll say, “perfect, totally get it.” Before you approach that conversation, internally know what you want and have your mind made up. It’s not that you’re asking for permission, but you’re more so sharing and wanting, not validation, but just the assurance of yes, let’s do this kind of thing. It’s a much more empowering place to be versus, can I go do this?

#8 The Celebrity

The last archetype is the celebrity.

• The inner bigshot
• Loves to be in the spotlight
• Values money as a tool to achieve status, image, and recognition
• No problem spending money to enhance their image

I actually love celebrities for the fact that they are unapologetic. They are those people that we see on social media, on the stage, on whatever. On the shadow side of it is when they’re doing these things out of need for approval. From a business perspective, they probably have no trouble investing in high ticket programs and that kind of stuff. But really taking a step back to take a look at their finances and not feel so secretive about it because they can tend to be very much in the ignorance is bliss zone. “Let me not look at my debts that are piling up.” Just really taking a step back to look at their money more intimately is going to be super empowering for a celebrity.

Evaluate:

Why am I buying these things?

What am I trying to get out of this?

Ashley: Oh, I love that. Oh my gosh! This is crazy, all of these different money personalities I have never heard about before! It’s so enlightening to hear specific traits on each money personality. Thank you so much for sharing all of this with us. Once you are aware of which type you are, where do you go from here?

Emily: Well, I did give a little taste. I do have a full-blown course on this that’s pretty inexpensive, I made it $27. Go to moneycode.ca to check it out. I go deeper into how to really enhance your archetype and use your money personality for your business and personal life.

ACTION STEPS

After learning all of this, have compassion for yourself. Not feeling like you’re wrong or right, or someone else is better with money than you. Understanding we’re all made differently around money. We can get caught up in what’s working for other business owners. But it might be working for them based on their money personality. Take a step back to evaluate what works well in your business.

What feels really good to me for my personality, my soul?

What feels good?

What feels simple? What feels easy?

Don’t feel like you have to do it one way or another because of someone else. It’s coming to an understanding that we’re all made different. We’re not all meant to make money the same way. How you want to make money is going to be perfect for you.

Emily: My website is emilyking.ca and, right on the main page, there’s a free gift with three meditations to help you manifest more money. It’s a really nice way to ground yourself, go inwards and feel really centered. Helping you connect with your intuition and with the abundance of wealth that’s available to you. You can also purchase The Money Code course and dive more into each money personality to understand yourself a little bit deeper.

Resources

• The Purpose Gathering Side Hustler to CEO Group Coaching Program
• Join our next Virtual Hangout – A great way to connect with like-minded mom photographers discussing various topics related to motherhood and business!
• Check out Emily’s website for a FREE gift!
• Grab The Money Code course
• Find me on Instagram: @thepurposegathering