This is Episode 228. Today, we are talking about investment mindsets and going from scarcity to abundance. Let’s get into it.

If you want to do things differently but need some help making it happen, then tune in for your weekly dose of coaching from me, Maisie Hill, Master Life Coach and author of Period Power. Welcome to The Maisie Hill Experience.

Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are. I am recording this episode pretty late, and I have been really out of sorts for the last few days. I just got back from Arizona where I’ve been for a whole week doing my equine facilitated learning apprenticeship. So I flew back via LA, landed in London at 10:00 AM on Sunday. And normally I like doing those red-eye flights because I sleep pretty well on them, but this time I got two and a half hours sleep, two and a half. I was in bits on Sunday, but I somehow managed to stay awake until 9:30 in the evening, and I was thinking, well, you know, this is perfect. I’m just going to crash, sleep through the night, but I woke up at 1:00 AM. So yesterday was a really great day.

But I’m here. I’ve slept, and I want to talk to you about how I think about making investments of any kind because that trip to Arizona is part of a much bigger investment that I’ve been making in myself and in my business, where I have been continuing my training in equine facilitated learning. So if you haven’t heard of this, because a lot of people haven’t, it’s not a big thing yet, but equine facilitated learning is a way of working with horses that reveals how you show up in relationships, in power dynamics, in leadership, and your experience of your emotions and of yourself really.

So it’s not horse training. Horses are the teachers, the facilitators, and really it’s everything that I already coach folks on, but it’s through a completely different lens, and I’m all in on it. I love it.

But this apprenticeship has been a big commitment financially and timewise, you know, there’s the cost of the training itself, the travel, the time it takes to get there because frankly, it is a pain in the ass to get there, but it is worth it.

And I was telling someone that I was going about a month ago, and they just kind of flippantly said, yeah, but why are you going all the way to Arizona? Can’t you do that kind of training here in the UK? And, you know, there are some options here. I actually did professional training in the UK prior to doing this apprenticeship, and I was really excited about the idea of doing something that was more local because I’d already been going to Arizona to do some of the work, but not the full apprenticeship.

But the thing is, although I am always happy to be learning and happy to be a student rather than the teacher, I know I’m not the average person who’s learning this kind of stuff for the first time. I’ve done so many certifications over the last 20 years. And so what is a new or really deep meaningful conversations to others is one that I’ve had multiple times and could be teaching. So although this work with horses is new to me, I still need depth, and I’m willing to go to Arizona, literally and metaphorically, in order to get it.

But here’s what I want to tease out for today’s episode. I didn’t make this investment because it was convenient. I made it because it matched the depth of transformation that I was looking for. And that is what I want to explore with you today. How I think about investments and how I make sure that I have a really good experience of them every single time, every single investment, even if the thing itself doesn’t deliver everything I perhaps hoped for. Because as I’ve already shared, not all of them do. And I’m not throwing any shade on any individual course, business, or organisation. It’s not what this is about. Because this is really about how you show up to the investments that you make.

Now, most people think that the result of an investment, the ROI, is something that they find inside the course that they take, the coach that they pay, the experience that they have. And whilst I agree that there ought to be sufficient value available to you inside these things, the real return starts way before that. It starts the moment you decide to back yourself. So whether I’m spending five figures on a professional training or paying £50, investing £50 on a webinar, the way I relate to the investment is what’s most important because without that relationship, I either won’t use it or I won’t benefit from the value that’s tucked away inside it waiting for me.

This is the difference between taking responsibility for your results and outsourcing them. This is why guarantees really fascinate me. I think they can sound like a good idea. They’re very reassuring. Well, actually, here’s what I think. I like to think, okay, if I was guaranteeing results inside my program, inside my membership, what would I need to create and set up in order to ensure that? That’s how I show up with responsibility to what I am creating.

But from a client point of view, I think guarantees sound like a good idea. They can feel very reassuring to someone. But is reassuring helpful? Or does it reduce responsibility for your own results? Because I think that is what happens. That is what I have seen a lot. It’s something I’ve noticed in myself. When I’m going to buy something, oh, there’s a guarantee, but then it’s like, I don’t think so good in terms of how I then show up or how I could show up had I not caught myself with that.

Now, as I’m talking today, this isn’t a how to get your money’s worth checklist. As I said, of course, when you spend money on anything, whether it’s a lipstick, a holiday, a course, or a night out, you want to receive value that is equal to or greater than what you have invested. That matters. And anyone selling something should care about their product or their offer being really great, and their clients and customers receiving the benefits of that greatness. Right? I take great responsibility for what I put out into the world. I want people to read my books and get way more than what they actually paid for it.

And when you listen to the podcast, I want you to feel that the half hour or so you’ve listened was worth the time investment. And certainly that’s true of the membership and all of the other work that I offer people as well.

But this idea of getting the most out of it is something I have some feelings, some thoughts and feelings about because it can come from scarcity, and that will absolutely limit how much value you end up receiving. So here’s how I see it. When you make an investment from scarcity, you immediately start keeping score. Right? You’re looking for evidence that it was worth it. You start tracking how many videos you’ve watched, how many calls you’ve attended. This is certainly what I see happen sometimes in the membership, whether you’ve done a workbook, if you’ve asked enough questions. And this is completely different to tracking your results.

Because remember, how much you use something has nothing to do, or very little to do, with the results you create as a result of using it. They are very different things. But if you’re using something from a place of self-doubt or pressure and scarcity, what you’re really tracking is, am I someone who makes bad decisions? Am I someone who follows through? Am I wasting my potential? Am I wasting my money? So now the investment isn’t about what you bought, it’s about your identity, and not in a helpful way.

This is why I don’t use return on investment, or the metric for return on investment being how much content I’ve watched or used. This is something that I’ve pointed out fairly frequently to my clients over years because there is so much that you can watch in the membership. We’ve got webinars, there’s years of coaching calls, and if you inadvertently end up measuring your success by how many of them you’ve watched, you’re setting yourself up for failure, and you’re never going to see the actual results you’ve created because you’re busy measuring by how much you’ve used it. And in fact, you’ll create less results because you’re in consumption mode.

So it’s really important. I can’t emphasise this enough. Please don’t do this. This isn’t school, okay? You’re not going to get a gold star for completing the membership. Genuinely, I would be concerned if someone came to me and said, I’ve watched every single call inside the membership. Right? Because that’s not the point. The point is you come in and you use the membership in order to support you in your life. So you should be more busy with your life than you are with the membership. We love it when you use the resources. We absolutely want you to do that. Please continue, okay? But it’s about supporting you in your life, not taking over your life. And this is sometimes the path that people can go down without realising that’s what’s happening.

So the metrics I’m most interested in is who I became in the process of signing up and then showing up to that investment. But I want to slow this down because there’s actually more to it. Most of us have been conditioned inside systems that equate value with output and using things. And we are taught that we must maximise everything, our time, our energy, our purchases, even ourselves. And extractive culture tells us that value only exists when something is depleted, when it’s been used up, when it’s been consumed and finished.

But in spaces that are about reciprocity, back and forth, that give and take, value exists because of how something changes us, how it lives in us, how it continues beyond us, and how we contribute to it. And when that mindset meets personal development, it often morphs into this quiet pressure to extract as much as possible from whatever we’re invested in.

But that extractive mindset isn’t neutral, okay? It comes from colonialism. It’s built on the idea that worth is tied to consumption and output, and that anything we engage with should yield a measurable return. So, when someone signs up for a course or even something like taking a day off work or having a night out and starts thinking, I need to get the most out of this, right? You can see the issue with this. Then what’s often running under the surface is things like, what if I don’t make this productive, I’ve failed.

I see this coming up a lot when people take a day off, like they’ve got to get the most out of it, even with resting. If the idea is that they’re going to rest, I’ve got to get the most out of this rest. Okay? And that’s understandable because it means usually they’re operating in systems where it is everything that I’ve just described, and there isn’t sufficient opportunity for things like rest and play and experimentation, and those systems, those environments are very pressured. So we just want to know that this is what’s going on.

So it can also show up as if I don’t use every part of it, I’ve wasted something. If I don’t leave changed in a way that I can really prove, then it wasn’t worth it. But that pressure to prove your investment is actually blocking your ability to receive from it. And this is why I don’t relate to my investments as something that I need to extract from. I relate to them as something that I’m in a relationship with.

So, when I choose to invest in something, whether it’s doing this apprenticeship in Arizona, whether I’m hiring a coach, if I’m signing up for a workshop that’s £50, I’m entering a space of co-creation. That’s how I see it. Because the transformation I experience doesn’t live inside the program, waiting for me to discover it. It lives in that space between what’s being offered and how I engage with it.

So this can be quite subtle, but it really is profound. So instead of asking, how am I going to get the most out of this? I ask questions like, what kind of relationship do I want to have with this? How do I want to show up to this space, this material, this experience? And what feels reciprocal rather than extractive? Because I prefer my experience and who I am when I show up with a view to participate rather than take.

Because then I can meet what’s being offered with a lot of presence and intentionality. And that was certainly my experience in Arizona, was just the level of presence and intentionality throughout the whole week. And that showed up like when we were doing the trainings for the whole day, we were exhausted by the end just because the level of presence. My friend was like, send me photos. And there’s just no photos because we’re just so present. And we don’t want to interrupt that by taking photos. But I was also very present when we were having margaritas at the end of the day and having a good time.

But this is what I say to my clients in the membership when I notice that there’s kind of subtle threads of this showing up. You’ll receive more if you show up to one call with intention and then apply the coaching on it than if you passively watch 20 videos. And that is 100% true. I see it all the time again and again. And it’s really cool to watch this shift in people because they’re learning how to approach things in a totally different way.

So I want to talk about scale for a moment. I’ve made lots of high-ticket investments in private coaching, in business masterminds, now in this apprenticeship. And the thing I want you to really hear is that I challenge myself to show up to the investment, whether I’ve spent £50,000 on it or I’ve spent £50. Because the tendency is if we’ve invested more money in something, then we do show up to it differently. I think that’s fair to say. So I like to challenge myself to show up to a £50 investment in the same way I would for ones that I’ve paid £50,000 for.

Not because they’re the same thing, but because I’m the same person, and I’m able to have that kind of experience with it. Because it’s not about the cost, it’s about the relationship. So, do I enter the space as a consumer expecting to be impressed and for someone to guarantee my results? Or do I enter as a co-creator knowing that the energy I bring shapes the transformation I get, and even the transformation that other people experience.

And when people join my membership, I think one of the questions that come up is like, well, how do I make the most of this? And I think it’s important that you do get good value, exceptional value from it. That’s how I’ve set it up. But my answer to them is decide what you want to have, what the experience you want to have is, and then move, operate like someone who is going to receive that. That way, the way you show up to the investment is helping you to expand into it rather than reinforcing an old story.

So if you’re constantly thinking, well, what if I don’t use it enough? What if I waste it? Then you’re already aligning with the version of yourself who doesn’t trust their ability to create their own results. One of the biggest hidden blocks to investing, especially for people who are thoughtful and self-aware and care, right, is the fear of wasting it. What if I don’t use everything? What if I start strong and then ghost myself? What if I get overwhelmed or distracted?

But here’s what’s actually happening in that moment. You’re trying to avoid feeling like a disappointment to yourself, or you’re trying to avoid any shame that you’re carrying that’s to do with past versions of yourself who didn’t, quote unquote, follow through. And we can question whether that’s even true. That’s a whole other episode. But that’s not a money problem, that’s a story problem, because you’re using it, you’re actually looking for evidence of a story that you have about yourself.

This is why coaching is so important because you can tease these stories out and separate them and question them, coach through them, and then create a new narrative, one that’s actually helpful. So I don’t measure the success of an investment by how many hours I’ve clocked doing that thing or how many checkboxes I’ve ticked. I measure it by how it changed the way I see myself.

And even if I were to get no other benefit from it, the nudge into a new identity is worth the investment. By the way, that’s never actually happened because I really do believe there’s always benefits, okay? But I’m more likely to get them because of my mindset. And unsurprisingly, thinking you won’t use it enough or that you’ll waste it creates the very outcome that you’re afraid of. Okay? You lurk, delay, disengage, and then you’re just thinking, well, see, I knew this wouldn’t work out for me.

But you’ll have created this outcome through your thinking. So, how you show up matters. I always get a return because I’m the one who creates it. Right? I take responsibility for my results. I get a return because I don’t put the responsibility for transformation entirely on the person or the experience. Okay, I’m not saying there should be no standards here. I have standards. I think you should have them too. That’s also useful, and they also matter.

But when I invest in something like this apprenticeship, I’m not just buying access to that thing. I’m stepping into a version of myself that’s already committed to the outcome that I want. I’m not looking for signs, I’m not needing reassurance, or for someone else to give me permission first. Because I’m investing as the version of me that knows. So this is the part of you who’s already made the choice, before the fear showed up, before the what-ifs started to come in. We’re going back to the version of you that made the choice, who knows what they want.

Right? They’re not waiting for certainty because they already are certain. It’s just then the questions might come in. And because they’re certain, they don’t need to poll everyone for their opinion and get votes. If you ever noticed how that only confuses you further. I don’t recommend doing it. And that version of you doesn’t need to see the end before taking the first step because they’re the one who said yes to the future before the results arrived. And that version of you is available to you right now.

Because when you invest from this place, you stop waiting to be convinced. You stop trying to squeeze value out of something in that extractive way. And instead, you start being in it. You actually get to be in the experience, and you create your own return because of who you are.

And here’s something else. When you show up fully, you don’t just enhance your own experience, you elevate the entire space. Your presence, your engagement, your willingness to be vulnerable, to be seen and to participate wholeheartedly, all of those things contribute to the collective energy and the potential of that group. Isn’t that amazing?

Like I show up to experience thinking, how am I going to make this even better? Not just for myself, but for everyone else. And sometimes that means me saying more, and sometimes that means me saying less. Okay, so it doesn’t necessarily look a certain way, but it’s like, how am I going to be in this that makes it better for everyone? That’s exactly what happened when I went all in on this apprenticeship. Even before I paid for it, I was already shifting. My identity was already shifting, already stretching and expanding.

And that’s without me knowing how I was going to actually be doing this work, by the way. So I didn’t have any clarity on the how or what this would end up looking like. I just knew it was something I wanted to step into. So I made that decision even when maybe it was a bit inconvenient for me to make it at that moment in time. That’s debatable. I think it was the best time.

Because the moment I said yes, really said yes, I stepped into a different version of myself. And the same is true no matter how much you invest or what you’re actually investing in. It’s what matters, isn’t the cost, it’s the decision. And that’s the version of me who’s been doing this apprenticeship because it’s not particularly convenient. It’s long days in a different time zone. I’m flying back and forth between the UK and Arizona. It’s a big financial and energetic commitment. It’s a time investment. It means shifting work and family stuff around. But I’m not waiting to see if it’s worth it. As I’ve already decided, I’m going to get what I came for. And if what I came for shifts partway through, I also trust myself to make that valuable, too.

So that’s how I think about investments. I don’t expect them to save me. I know they’re going to shape me, but I know how I show up to that is what matters. And whether it’s a five-figure training or a one-off kind of lower ticket thing that I’m investing in, I always come back to this. I am the one who creates the value. And the investment is just giving me somewhere to place the bet, to bet on myself.

So, next time you’ll hear from me, I will have had more good sleep, ready to talk to you about whatever’s next on my list. I have no idea at this point. But going to get my head together for the rest of today, have some rest, go ride my horse, and I will catch you next week.

Hey, if you love listening to this podcast then come and check out my membership, Powerful, where you get my best resources and all the coaching you need to transform your inner and outer life. Sign up to the waitlist at maisiehill.com/powerful, and I’ll see you in the community.