Molly Claire 00:39

Hey, everyone. I am really looking forward to sharing today's guest with you, Hanna Bier. She is here to talk with us about money. And this topic can be a sensitive topic for a lot of people. It can be a very emotionally charged topic. It is the number one reason for divorce. It is a big topic for people in their business. And let's just face it, money, it matters in all of our lives, right? And so I'm really excited to bring Hanna's perspective today. And as Hanna and I talked before we started recording, we just touched on this idea of how important it is that we feel maybe a little safer, a little more at ease, and even a little more refreshed around the topic of money. So this is what we're going to be talking about. Hanna, welcome to today's podcast. 

Hanna Bier 01:38

I'm so thrilled to be here, Molly! 

Molly Claire 01:40

So happy to have you. So tell everyone a little bit about you. 

Hanna Bier 01:45

Yeah, my name is Hanna Bier. I live in the south of Germany. My life looks like the sound of music. It's all rolling hills and cobblestone streets and old churches. And I have little daughters, so we spend lots of time outside in the mud. And when I'm not doing that, I get to help very ambitious, very accomplished, very creative women redesign their relationship with money, become beautifully receptive to money, have lots of fun in their business, and really experience the bliss of money. 

Molly Claire 02:15

Hmm. I love that. I love that. And especially because, you know, as you're talking and I'm thinking about my listeners and I'm thinking about my clients and I'm thinking about, I mean, the hundreds of conversations that I've had with clients over the years around fears with money and feelings of inadequacy around money. And I'm thinking of my own fears and inadequacies and even some recent experiences where I've realized there's still more work to do in me. So I think that the work that you do is so important. 

Hanna Bier 02:50

Yeah, one of the things I've really come to believe is that a woman isn't truly free until she's deeply secure with money. I really do believe that none of us are truly free until we're deeply secure with money. It's this inverse relationship and money goes so much deeper than the big house, the big car, the successful business, the spreadsheets, the numbers, the investments. It really goes all the way to the core of who we are. I believe that money is an expression of love. Money is how we love ourselves. Money is how we put delicious food on the table, how we furnish a beautiful cozy home, how we fly across the country to our best friend's wedding. Money is a tool that we use to take excellent care of ourselves. And so when we grew up and we didn't feel that love was abundant, we oftentimes have that same relationship with money later on in life. And I've actually discovered that there's three different camps of clients. And so anybody listening, you just kind of do a little self-assessment with me here and see where you fall in those three camps. So before we do the self-assessment, we need to really understand that the way money flows in your life today as an adult totally mirrors how love flow between you and your main caretakers when you were little. So if you're in the camp that I belong in where love was never enough, your felt sense was that it was never enough. You always wanted more kisses, more touches, more attention. You really wanted your parents to know you. And it just always felt like you could never really like quench your thirst when it came to love. And we really want to work with your felt sense. So maybe your parents really did what they could, you know, it's partly the case for all of our parents, but like you as a child, did you feel like love was dependable, like love was abundant, like your needs were always met, like you always received the answers to your requests that you needed, not where you got everything that you wanted, but where you got what you needed. And so if that was a resounding yes for you right now, you probably are already a pretty great receiver of money. For me, that wasn't really the case. For me, my journey in life was really about discovering that it's safe, fried and good to receive the love and the care and the security that I was craving and that it's not too much. The second camp of people are the people who got a lot of love and attention from their parents, but it came at a price, you know, where you had to be the good little girls, the good little boys, you really had to fit into the family culture. And then you got so much praise and so much recognition and so much love, but you were never really loved for being who you are. Later on in life, you know, some of my clients are extremely accomplished, you know, they're, they have PhDs and they're C-suite executives and they get insane bonuses. And then I taught, you know, one of them is like a pilot and then has a PhD on top of that. And I'm like, sometimes clients come to me, I'm like, you are the definition of success. Why do you come to work with me? 

Hanna Bier 05:54

And then they tell me about their finances and there was like nothing left, like they're really great earners, but they're on this roller coaster with money where money comes in and then it leaves, money comes in and then it leaves. And then when we explore their childhood a little bit further, it becomes very apparent that love was never really dependable, that they always had to perform in a certain way, or they always had to pay a certain praise in order to receive the love and the care that they needed. And, you know, now later on in life, many people, they work really crazy hours or they sacrifice their relationships, they sacrifice their parenting in order to receive money. So if you fall into that camp, just make a little mental note. And then there's the third camp where they had a very volatile relationship with their parents. So when my clients come to me and they've had very high highs, very low lows, it's again, a different spin on the second camp where they're really great money makers, but money just, it's like they're, there's a poltergeist in their finances. They don't even really know where the money, where the money went or one year they have insane success in their business and the next year everything crashes and they have to let go of all of their employees. And so for them, we really need to repattern their relationship with money to, money is consistent, just like love is consistent, you know, money is safe, just like love is safe. I'm welcome to receive and have as much money as I want in the same sense that it is totally safe, right and good to receive any amount of love that I could potentially ever want. And so over time we start to smooth out the waves and people go from needing to make more money to being people who have money. And this is where we start to get closer to this idea of emotional freedom with money and then also practical, tangible financial freedom with money, which is where, you know, life gets really fun and interesting when we don't have to work necessarily where we work because we want to, not because we have to. 

Molly Claire 07:57

You know, and as you're talking about like these three camps that you find a lot of your clients fall into, this is a bit of a sidestep from this, but something I think worth mentioning is that I think that many people, I know that's a very big statement, it's very subjective, right? But I think a lot of people feel intimidated even about the idea of learning more about money and understanding it. And it can seem like something that's very foreign to them. And I think it's interesting how, first of all, it's not that complicated and we can work on doing that internal work to believe that we can understand more about it. And also, I just think it's really interesting how to think how much meaning we put into money, right? Because money in and of itself has no intrinsic value, right? And yet the power of how we relate to money and how we choose to engage with money and allow money to support us in our lives can have a really powerful effect on how we relate to ourselves, right? It's this funny thing where money is something people made up. It's just paper. It's like really truly is made up and yet what an interesting, what would I say, almost an interesting opportunity that money as a resource can be a big part of how we grow in our relationship with ourselves and our belief in what we want to create. 

Hanna Bier 09:36

Absolutely. This is why money goes so deep. I cannot tell you Molly how many clients come to me and they were so frustrated and so incredibly smart. It was the same in my own life where it felt like if something in my relationships doesn't work or if there's something going on with my body, I can read a book, I can change my nutrition, I can talk to a therapist, and I can fix this. For me, it always felt like money was the last thing I could not figure out, and it was incredibly frustrating for me. I love that you're sharing your perspective on it because it's so true that all those emotions bubble up. Then we're surrounded by so many different perspectives on money. I also really like to remind myself that we usually only see rich people talk about money. Whenever I look for information or tips on how to organize my finances, I always have to kind of remember the rich people are usually people we hear the most. We need to talk about the distinction between rich and wealthy. A rich person is someone who's willing or able to spend money. If I see somebody drive a 250k car down the road, all I know is that they're just 250k short or that they signed a very expensive lease for that car, but I don't really know whether they're also wealthy, what their money flow is, whether they sleep soundly at night, whether they're able to retire at the age that they want to retire. I really don't know much about that. I've discovered that wealthy people who are truly relaxed and well with money, who really have their money set up the way that it really supports them to live their life the way they want to, they're usually not on the internet creating rage bait. They're usually not very out there and noisy and trying to show off their wealth. For me, trying to heal my relationship with money was also this journey into discovering what does financial freedom and emotional freedom around money actually look like in emotional terms and also in practical terms and then who are the people I want to learn from because it can be so overwhelming to decide I want something in my finances to change and then where do you go for information because the internet is welcome to teach you how to make 100k within five minutes or all of those ideas. For me, it was really this journey into figuring out who are the people I want to be like and my definition of financial freedom is really to work because I want to. That's one of my favorite things that I've created for myself. I truly work because I want to. I'm well past my Coast Fire goal. If you know about Coast Fire and Fire, I'm well on my way to my Fire goal. I'm excited to be totally financially independent pretty soon. 

Hanna Bier 12:26

As you're considering what your goals are with money, just really make sure that you learn from wealthy people, not just rich people. I usually feel most inadequate in comparison to the rich people where they have the big house and they have the big car and they have the fancy vacations and they have the everything, but you want to make sure that in addition to them having those things and there's nothing wrong with wanting to give yourself those things that you're also making sure that they are wealthy, that you learn from the people have true financial well-being. 

Molly Claire 13:01

And there's such a difference between someone who's able to make money and someone who's able to build wealth. Not someone as if like, oh, this type of person or that, right? But as far as the habits, because you can make, you know, you can make a million dollars a year, but if you're also spending that, right, it's a, it's a huge difference. And I think that, you know, the other thing as we're talking is I think that, you know, it's interesting how our stories about money can exist in our nervous system and just how important it is that anyone here who's wanting to change their relationship with money and their story around money, how important nervous system regulation is, you know, it's like yesterday I had this interesting experience. So one of the things, uh, I do a lot of self work, right? I know everyone here does, we're always like looking inside and then we, something is, we improve a part of us or we heal a part of us and we grow and then guess what? The next thing comes up, right? And so one of the memories that I have, you know, that has come back to me several times in relation to several of my, you know, blocks or setbacks is sitting with my mom. I, this is just, I could be making this up, but I think it was once a month, something like that. Maybe it was every couple of weeks or whatever, but she would sit at her desk at the top of the stairs and I would just like be laying on the floor by her cause I didn't have a lot of time with my mom and, um, she would be paying the bills and there would always get to a point when she would say she would just sigh and she would just say, we're in the hole like every single time. So here I was right as a child, watching this experience of watching my mom, you know, a single mom. So what did I do? I got this idea that about how much money women can have, what the experience of a single mom is. And, and, and I watched and could feel how hard that experience was for her. Right. And so anyway, having said all of this, it's a lot, a lot happened for me within that, that I carried with me. And it was so interesting because yesterday I was sitting down to go through some of my bills. And just within the last couple of months, I actually moved houses and I had a whole bunch of other expenses. So it's like, if everything financially feels like it's like in upheaval right now. And I noticed as I sat down, having this clear visual of that almost like even though I have distance from it and even though I've created a very different relationship with money in that moment, when I was experiencing having many bills having, you know, having come in and feeling maybe some of those familiar things that that memory was like burned in my brain. And I'm like, I've still got work to do here. 

Hanna Bier 16:08

Yeah, it's interesting because you're touching on a feeling that so many of us hold around money. And back when I was so, so, so, so broke, worrying about paying rent, feeling really embarrassed, feeling terrified about my future, I always thought, once I hit this number, I'll feel safe. Once I hit that number, I'll feel safe. Once I make this happen, and I did have some moments where I started to experience how nice it is to have money but more because I proved to myself that I was a great money maker. So having that change in my identity was extremely powerful. I remember living in Amsterdam and my savings hit 17,500 for the first time. And I was sitting looking at my bank statement and just my whole body had like the sense of release, just like, ah, like from head to toe, just this ripple of relaxation of like, I was able to make this money and save this money. And I could do this over and over and over and over again. And it felt so, so, so good. And then of course, my next goal was set. And so I was now working toward this and then toward that, toward that, and then toward this. And so early on in my business, I already had like clients that were earning like 10 times as much as me or had significantly more money than me. Many of my clients came from family wealth or had careers where you just make a lot of money. And so through working with them, I really discovered that having a certain amount of money doesn't prevent you from having this thinking feeling of we're in the hole. It's not- That's right, that's right. It could be taken away. Just this constant feeling of not enough, not enough, not enough. And actually being in the energy of I want more, I want more, for many of us emotionally translates to not enough, not enough, not enough. 

Molly Claire 17:59

Absolutely. When you said that, and I think I want more, that's a terrible feeling for me. Not that I don't, it's just the words, right? I want more does communicate to me. Oh my gosh, there's a space here that's vacant. That's void that I need more is what it feels like. Just not a good feeling. Yeah. 

Hanna Bier 18:19

Yeah, I can feel like even as we're talking about it, I can imagine that your body is already shifting that your posture, you know, like my shoulders are moving forward and I'm feeling like very small and very constricted and my heart starts to beat a little faster. So this thought, I want more, I want more money. I want I have to I need to be successful. I have to earn like, Oh, my God, my whole body just 10s and stuff. It feels awful. Yeah, I always tell my clients thoughts that are true feel light and giggly thoughts that are true feel like a relief. So we need to shop around for better feeling thoughts. Because the current thought that 99.9% of the world population are thinking and again, it's irrespective of how much money actually somebody has. There could be somebody earning 30k a year and feeling so absolutely relaxed and abundant with money. There is probably lots and lots of, you know, billionaires with even richer billionaire friends that feel like the greatest losers with money who feel like it could be taken at any moment. And so we need to really assess what thoughts we're holding around money and your body will tell the story of whether or not that thought is true or false. And we need to shop around for better feeling thoughts. And so one of the shifts that we can make around the thought of I want more money is to really become aware of all the money they already have. So, you know, being really grateful for the money that's already in your life. You know, I remember when I first really understood this, I looked over at my shoes, and I was like, I have way more shoes than I could ever wear. Like I have two feet. And I have like, I don't know, eight pairs of sneakers sitting there, you know, or I have two bedside tables, like, I want person like I can't even what do you mean? It's like way too much, way more than I ever could need. And I started to look around my life and I just saw excess like, I'm one person, I don't need 10 plates, but here are 10 plates, you know, or I have two frying pans. Do you know what I mean? I could never ever, ever use two frying pans at the same time. Now it's just walking through my life and just seeing excess absolutely everywhere. And then it also started to think about the history of money, how it first began. And so back when we were still bartering, you know, I would give you some tomatoes, and you would maybe give me some chicken in exchange. And then over time, we used money as a placeholder. And so money really became this way of communicating to one another. Thank you. Thank you for the tomatoes. I appreciate your gardening. I appreciate your farming. I appreciate your expertise on growing tomatoes. I appreciate the contribution that you're making with your skills and your talents to this community. I appreciate how you're helping all of us thrive. And you know, in return, I appreciate you for raising chickens for slaughtering chickens for, you know, preparing the meat for us to eat, you know, and so to me, money started to become this language of saying thank you. 

Hanna Bier 21:16

And so now anytime that I use money, and I pay something, I always think about, you know, if I go to the store and I buy tomatoes, for example, I'll think, thank you so much for the people who selected the seeds, who prepared the soil for the people driving the tractors and, you know, watering the tomato plants and harvesting, I just think about the whole chain of people who are using their precious time to help grow these wonderful tomatoes. And I love that anytime that I spend money, I help somebody feed their family. And so I started to think about money less in terms of a judgment about me, you know, am I doing well in life? Am I safe? And I more think about, you know, it being an expression of appreciation between human beings. And in return, who am I to not let my clients thank me for their services that they are receiving from me. And so now anytime a client pays me, I'm receiving a thank you in the form of money. So when I look at my bank account, it's like money came in, money came in, money came in. What I really read is thank you, thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for using your skills and your services, and your time and your talents in order to contribute to our community to help all of us thrive. 

Molly Claire 22:32

And I think that's where I know a lot of the work that I've done with my clients and for myself as well is really becoming more comfortable with being able to receive. Receive in always, right? Receive compliments, receive help and care and love. And I think that we can sometimes be so hyper independent or feel guilty receiving, right? Especially, you know, I see this pattern with so many, especially coaches, people that are in the helping field. We're so comfortable giving, but guess what? Like we have to really truly be able to not just be okay receiving, but actually enjoy the experience of receiving and believe that it's good. It's good, right? To give and to receive because we have to be able to receive in order to have more money. 

Hanna Bier 23:29

Yeah. And also, it's not noble to be bad receivers. We're spoiling the fun of letting other people love us. I know. One of my best friends, she loves to come over and she always eats all of my food. Like she'll come over and there's like a gigantic pot of stew sitting in my kitchen and, you know, I'm making it for the week and she just eats the whole thing. You know, and just like one sitting, it's all gone. And she's like, do you have more? Can I have anything else? And like, she's my dream guest. Like she's perfect. Like please come into my house and open all of my cabinets and help yourself to anything that you can find. Like I love it when people make it so easy for me to love them. When people say, yes, please. Yes. Thank you. Oh, can I have seconds? This was so delicious. Oh, I appreciate you so much. And can you help me with this? Can you, like it's so much fun to get to love people. And so how rude then to spoil other people's fun in getting to love you. It's not noble to be like a no, no, no, no, no. And so being a great receiver is also about, sometimes my clients say, oh my God, I just feel so mushy. I feel so soft, you know, and that's you turning into a better receiver when you're more in the energy of yes and less in the energy of no. And you appreciate that other people also have the right to love you, you know, like for you to say that other people aren't allowed to love you. So there's a wonderful you walking around the planet and we're all just supposed to like withhold our love. No. And so paying you and giving to you and loving you and appreciating you and complimenting you, you know, that's just just safe, right and good. And so for me, the switch really flipped when I started thinking about, you know, like two babies being born, like does one of them deserve more love and care and safety and attention than the other? No. And so it's the same for all of us, you know? And so, yeah, so becoming a better receiver with money is really about starting to see money differently, starting to see it as a communication of thank you, is there to see it as people want to love me and they have a right to love me. And so I just need to step back. At first, I needed to just stick to language because when I was a teenager, I was always like, no, you shouldn't have or, you know, I was like, I was being modest and uncomfortable with receiving. And then I just had like a little script in my head of, I always say, thank you so much. I appreciate that. You are so sweet. Yes, please. I would love some more. And so even though inside I felt so uncomfortable and I was so much happier being a giver, I just needed to stick to my little script and say, thank you so much. I appreciate that. And just let people give to me. 

Molly Claire 26:17

I love it. As we're finishing up this episode, I want to, and in just a minute, you'll find out where you can find Hanna, learn more about her, but I would love Hanna any final tips of just one or two things that my listeners could do today to either open up their ability to receive. I know you've already given a lot of tips and ideas, but especially if someone's just wondering like, what's one small step that I could take today? What would you say to them? 

Hanna Bier 26:48

Yeah, one of my favorite things that I love to do with money is I love to label my in my banking app on my phone. And even if your bank allows that you can even label your different accounts. My setup is very simple. I have a checking. I have a saving and I have all of my investments and my savings and my investments are called my money growth here or money growth here or have fun growing. 

Molly Claire 27:12

Oh, I love that, I love that. 

Hanna Bier 27:14

Yeah, and your checking account can be thank you, or it can be, you know, money comes through here, or I'm so grateful for you to come through here, whatever resonates with you. So just label your, your banking apps. I have my, my app, I have, I changed that name and then also my different accounts that I have inside my banking app. And then I always have to have, I love to have a beautiful clean wallet and I collect any money, like any, any like tiny sense that I find on the ground, like any money that I find, any money is welcome. Because to me money is just love. And so people are welcome to give me millions, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and I'll take the tiny money as well. Like any amount of love is welcome in my life. Any amount of money that life sends me is absolutely welcome. And then I love seeing myself as someone who has money. And this is a very subtle identity shift. So most people that I talk to, they always know the number one goal that people come to me for is they'll say, I want to really master selling and I want to close more deals and I want to make more money in my business. And of course we help them with that. And the identity shift that I am most excited to help my client's master is really the shift from I have to make more money. Life is about making money to I am somebody who has money and it's safe, right? And good to allow my money to grow. Money wants to love me. Money wants to create opportunities in my life and I'm willing to let it. So really explore this for yourself. Are you someone who only ever sets the goal of I want more money. I don't have enough money. Need to make more money, more money, more money, which really translates to money is running through my fingers. I really don't end up with much at the end of the day. Or are you willing to become someone who has money, who loves seeing their money grow? Imagine if every single day you wake up and like there's orders and thank yous from your clients in your inbox. And then you also check your banking app and there's just more money. I've had many times in my life where the math just did not make sense. Like where it was like, I don't know where all this money came from. It makes no sense whatsoever, but I'm so happy to receive it. And sometimes even really magical things can happen where your money just keeps growing and growing and growing and growing and growing. Where for many of us, you know, we have the opposite, you know, where we're looking at our banking apps and we're like, where did all the money go? You know, and so we really want it. 

Molly Claire 29:41

We want to flip that. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Going from someone who wants to make more money to someone who has money. Has money, right? Having money versus making money. Yeah. I love all of that. And I love just what a small thing to change the names on the bank accounts, but it really is. It's everything. So this has been such a great conversation. And I would love for you to tell everyone where they can find you if they want to learn more. 

Hanna Bier 30:12

Absolutely. My website is hannabier.com. You're welcome to find more about my programs, my services, apply to work with me, and there's also some freebies on my website for you to explore. If my philosophy around money interests you, then my freebies are a really great place to start to just really start to think about money differently and to really start setting your own goals around money because everyone has their own path with money, and we need to make sure that we're working on the right goals with you. For me, for example, I'm not a big house, big car kind of person. I'm a travel the world kind of person. Many of the goals that other people might have with money are just not my goals, and it's probably the same for you. Check out my freebies to really clarify your vision with money, and then I'm also on Instagram at hannamoneybliss. Come say hi. 

Molly Claire 31:02

I love it. Thank you so much. And you know, I'll just say those of you listening, like, just if there's one thing on this that spoke to you, just take it in and really let whatever seed was planted work for you. I know since starting my business, you know, it's been, I guess, 13 years ago, I've had tremendous shifts in my own identity with money, my own relationship with money, there's still more room to grow for sure. But I'm so grateful that I had the awareness that I do have a choice in how I think, feel and behave with money. Because it really has been the difference, you know, for me in terms of, right, it's like, life happens, right? Things change, things ebb and flow. And I've definitely face times in my life where I've had to pick myself up, financially and figure it out so that I could have the life I want. And I'm so glad that I knew that I had a choice. So we do have a choice. You have a choice in how you think, feel and behave with money. And it can just make all the difference in terms of quality of life. So what a gift. Thank you so much for being here and for sharing your philosophy and just great to have you. 

Hanna Bier 32:23

It's my pleasure, Molly. Thank you so much. All right. Thanks, everyone. 

Molly Claire 32:27

I'll talk with you next week. I'll talk with you next week.