The #1 Mistake Creators Make with Money

Even successful creators and business owners who earn good money make this critical mistake, which creates stress, instability, and second-guessing. In this solo episode, Lisa Marie reveals the #1 mistake they make: treating money as isolated events rather than recognizing the living patterns that actually drive financial stability.

Through practical examples and real scenarios, she breaks down why snapshot thinking keeps you on an emotional roller coaster with your finances, and how pattern awareness transforms panic into predictability. This episode will shift you from reacting to individual transactions to understanding the rhythm of your money flow.

Key Learning Points

• Snapshot vs. Pattern Thinking - Most people experience money moment by moment (good month = safe, slow month = scary) instead of seeing the bigger picture
• The Roller Coaster Effect - When your nervous system rides your transactions like a roller coaster, every fluctuation feels personal and urgent
• Pattern Blindness - Without understanding your money's natural rhythm, you make emotional decisions based on single data points
• The Revenue Rhythm Example - A $14K month looks like failure in isolation, but normal when you see the 12-month pattern of highs and lows
• Context Creates Leadership - When you have reference points and patterns, you move from reactive to strategic decision-making
• Pattern vs. Prediction - Pattern awareness isn't about predicting perfectly, it's about knowing what's normal for YOUR business
• More Reference Points, Not Revenue - Most business owners don't need more money; they need more context to make better decisions
• The Right Question - Instead of "How much is there?" ask "How does this compare to my normal?"

Action Steps from This Episode

1. Look at your last 6-12 months of revenue data
2. Calculate your average monthly revenue to establish a baseline
3. Identify your average monthly baseline expenses (recurring costs)
4. Map natural dips and spikes to see your rhythm
5. Observe without judgment - this is about gathering information, not self-criticism
6. Change your question from "How much is there?" to "How does this compare to my normal?"

Resources 

• Free Wealth Alignment Call with Lisa Marie
• Cash and Sass™ Podcast Newsletter
• Transcendent Wealth Co services
• The Seven Money Pitfalls email series

Follow Lisa Marie on your favorite social platform:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn

Transcendent Wealth Co. LLC
https://www.transcendentwealthco.com   

Transcript

Lisa: [00:00:00] Welcome back to Cash and sas, the podcast where we ditch the shame, talk real numbers, and build bold bankable wealth without sacrificing who we are. I'm your host, Lisa Marie Fractional CFO Money Mentor and the Sassy Wealth queen behind Transcendent Wealth Co. And if you are ready to scale with strategy, own your power, and finally feel wealthy in every sense of the word, then you are in the right place.

In this episode, we're talking about the number one mistake creators, business owners, and entrepreneurs make with money even when they're earning well, and why it create quietly creates stress, instability, and second guessing. So without further ado, let's dive in. Okay. The biggest mistake I see creators and business owners and entrepreneurs make is this.

They treat money like a series of isolated events instead of a living pattern. So let me [00:01:00] explain. Most people experience money moment by moment. A good month feels safe. A slow month feels scary, A big expense feels threatening, a big launch feels relieving. Everything is emotional and reactive. Y'all.

Money doesn't operate in moments. It operates in patterns. And if you only evaluate money and snapshots, you will always feel unstable. And I mean, always, no matter how much money you make, doesn't matter if you're bringing in 5,000, 10,000, $50,000 a month, you'll always feel unstable. So here's what a snapshot, here's what snapshot thinking looks like.

Okay. You check your bank account, you feel relief or panic. You see a big deposit. You [00:02:00] exhale, you see a big withdrawal, you tense up. Your nervous system is riding your transactions like a roller coaster. Y'all. That's exhausting. And most people don't realize that the problem isn't the number, it's the lack of context around the number.

So for example, let's say you have a $30,000 month. That's a great month, right? Then the next month you bring in 14,000. Immediately your brain says, oh hell, what happened? Is this a problem? Did I mess something up? Did something go wrong? What happened? But what if your pattern over the last 12 month, 12 months, shows a rhythm of something like this, 28,000, [00:03:00] 16,035,000, 18,000, 32,000, 14,000?

So now that $14,000 month doesn't look like a failure, right? It looks like a rhythm because you have the last few, you have the last 12 months, last six months of looking at what was going on. Oh, I don't need to panic. This is the rhythm, right? Y'all, without pattern awareness, every fluctuation will feel personal.

With pattern awareness. Instead, it becomes predictable and predictability creates calm because you can work with that. When you don't understand your money's pattern, you make decisions from emotion. So you might overcorrect during slower months, overspend during the higher [00:04:00] months, delay investment investments unnecessarily.

Uh. Panic, hustle when it isn't needed. Anybody done that all because you're responding to one data point instead of the full story? That's the mistake. It's not that it's bad math, not that it's irresponsibility, it's pattern blindness.

You are not seeing the pattern and the rhythm of the money coming in where it should be allocated. The rhythm of the money coming in. And when you, if you were to see the rhythm instead of overspending, you would be making sure that you had the money for those slow months. Right? You would understand there was no reason to panic.

Oh, okay. And, and be able to adjust with that rhythm. Here's the shift I want you to [00:05:00] take from this episode. Stop asking, is this month good or bad? Instead start asking, what is my money's pattern telling me? Now, if you don't know your money's pattern yet, that's okay. That's okay. No beating, no beating yourself up.

Start, just start and, and here's the thing. Start simple. Okay? So look at the last six to 12 months.

And write down what your revenue was because you want to ask yourself, what's my average monthly revenue? Then you wanna look and say, what's my average monthly baseline expense? Right? Those are those monthly reoccurring expenses. Where are the natural dips and spikes? Now, here's the key that I need you to understand when you're doing this, [00:06:00] so many entrepreneurs and business owners and creators who've worked with me in the past and who've come to work with me when we do this exercise, they immediately start judging.

They immediately start beating themselves up, and that's not what this exercise is about. I tell them the exact same thing I'm telling you now. When you're doing these exercises, you're not doing it to judge. You're doing it just to observe because you, in order to have the de, the, the power to make the decisions and have that predictability, you have to have the information.

And in order to have the information, you've got to observe, observation reduces drama. And drama reduces chaos, right? Okay. So why this changes everything. When you [00:07:00] understand your pattern, you don't panic during the dips. You don't overspend during the highs. You are adjusting. You understand the patterns, you're, you're able to, to look and say what you need to do to prepare for the next month or plan accordingly As you're doing your launches, you don't feel like every decision is life or death, and the reason you don't is because now you have context.

And context creates leadership.

Money becomes something that you're able to interpret, not something that controls you. And that's really, really important because as business owners and creators and entrepreneurs, you are a C are the CEO of your business. So you want to have that leadership and having this information, that context creates leadership.

Now, here's [00:08:00] an important distinction, and I need you to listen to me really, really carefully on this. Please. Pattern awareness does not mean predicting everything perfectly. You are going to make mistakes. I can guarantee it. I have. I've been in business nine years and I, I, I have, I have made 'em. Pattern awareness does not mean predicting everything perfectly.

What it does mean is knowing what's normal for you. And again, your normal and my normal are gonna be two different things. 'cause we're two different people. We're in two different businesses and we have different clients. It means knowing what's normal for you. When you know your normal, you stop personalizing, fluctuation, and that alone reduces so much stress.[00:09:00] 

Most business owners don't need more revenue, y'all. They need more reference points. They need more context. They need more information in order to make the decisions, make better decisions. Okay. After this episode, I want you to do this. Instead of opening your bank account and asking how much is there, I want you to instead ask, how does this compare to my normal?

That question pulls you out of panic and in and, and, excuse me. That question pulls you out of panic and instead into perspective. And perspective is the beginning. Of having financial maturity, which is also leadership. Okay. And the reason this is because without pattern awareness, everything will feel urgent.

And y'all urgency makes [00:10:00] people reactive, impatient, and emotionally driven.

It just does. With pattern awareness, you instead become strategic, and strategy is what turns income into wealth.

Now, I want you to understand that this episode isn't about building a forecasting model. Instead it's about realizing that money feels unstable when you only look at pieces of it. So instead, zoom out.

See the patterns. Patterns, calm, the nervous system. Being able to recognize the patterns, calm the nervous system, and a calm nervous system makes better decisions. It makes better strategic decisions. It doesn't make 'em reactively, chaotically, or emotionally.[00:11:00] 

Until next time. Remember, confidence in cash are the ultimate power duo. Go check in with your money and as always, have a fantastic and wealthy day.