With every norm, there is always an exception so this is NOT me trying to paint every man with the same brush, nor every woman with the opposite brush. But…men typically behave differently when it comes to business.
Majority of my clients are women, but I do work with a few men as well. From my experience, I can tell you that there is a substantial difference in how they run their businesses and approach money and mindset.
Men don’t care what you think.
Here are some things that you typically will NOT hear a man say: “what will people think if I charge that much?” or “what will people think if I put a picture of myself on my website or my business card?” Another super common one is, “what will people think if I haven’t got enough experience in this thing yet?” Women worry WAY too much about what other people may or may not think. Typically, men are quite unattached to what people think and say about them.
Men DO NOT ask permission to spend money.
When was the last time you heard a man say, “I need to talk to my wife first.” They typically don’t ask their wife for permission to buy tickets to a sports game. They don’t ask permission to invest money in themselves but yet I hear women say and do this all the time!
If you are making your own money, YOU get to choose how you spend it. Don’t wait for anyone to give you permission. Too often, we give our power away and we seek permission or approval from the wrong people to live our lives the way that we want.
They charge as much as they can get, not the minimum that they think people will pay.
That’s a HUGE difference. I hear women say things like: “I’m not sure if people will pay that much.” We play small when it comes to asking for what we’re worth. We diminish our worth and the amount of money that we make because we’re afraid to ask for what we deserve to be paid in our business.
Charge what you know your value is. If you don’t know what your value is, you need to start asking people about the value of what you offer so that you can build confidence in your own worth.
Men aren’t afraid to ask for raises and ask for more money.
In my entire life, I can only think of ONE woman who has asked me for more money, and the rest have always been men. We need to start stepping up and asking for what we’re worth!
Men aren’t afraid to take risks.
If there is a job opportunity inside of a corporation and there are five prerequisites to apply for the job, men will likely still apply if they only have half of one! Women need to be masters at all five before they’ll take the chance and apply for the opportunity. We are afraid to take risks. Men don’t take it personally if they don’t get the job, but women, we’re afraid of rejection.
Isn’t it time to get over that? If you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect other people to believe in you? Often the things that you least expect to work out turn out to be beautiful and magical opportunities in your life.
People are looking for people that have the confidence to ask for more money when they are working really hard and doing a good job.
Men aren’t afraid to utilize their resources.
Let’s be honest, we know name-droppers. How many of those people are men? I bet the majority. Guys are not afraid to name-drop about the guys that they hang out with, the people they keep company with or the things they do. They’re also not afraid to reach out to one of their guy friends and ask for help. Women, on the other hand, are resistant to name-dropping because they’re worried what people will think and they also have a really hard time asking for help.
Women will give and give and give until they’ve got nothing left, but are the LAST people to reach out and ask for help. Why is that?
Asking for help is not a weakness. Start leveraging opportunities and stop being afraid to speak up and ask for what we want despite the fear of rejection.
You are meant to play big, not small.
The next time you catch yourself waiting or asking permission or assuming that people don’t want to help you, I want to challenge you to remember this article and to act exactly the opposite way that you were intending.
Be brave and courageous, take risks and be bold and be all that you were destined to be. If you need to, borrow a little bit of courage from the way men handle things. Because honestly ladies, waiting is no fun!
It’s time to take control of your life, your way, and get what you want.
How are you going to inject a little bit of the man’s mindset into your life this week? Leave a comment and let me know!