Entrepreneurs love the idea of growing wealth. They want to invest, to create leverage, to make money on their money.
I get it—it’s smart, and I’ve lived it. Yes, investing matters. Finding your Investor DNA matters. Building financial independence matters.
But here’s the reality: Growing your money is only part of the wealth equation.
Wealth is not just about investments or returns. It’s about how you value yourself, how you price your work, how you build your team, and whether you’re creating from a place of scarcity or abundance.
To accelerate wealth:
- Make more money.
- Keep more of the money you make (without cutting back).
- Grow your money.
- Grow yourself.
Let’s tap into hidden potential, goodwill, and the assets you already have. I want to emphasize making more money first, by charging for the value you provide.
The keys:
- Break free from commoditization and underpricing.
- Build a team without going broke or crazy.
- Shift from scarcity to abundance in creation.
- Use pricing and value to create substantial wealth.
Part 1: Pricing is Self-Worth in Disguise
When you price your services, you aren’t just picking a number—you’re revealing what you believe about yourself.
Early in my career, I only got paid on commission. I was afraid to charge fees because I didn’t have an example and was stuck in a broken, limited system.
Ninety percent of what I was teaching, I wasn’t even getting paid for. So I finally decided to charge.
The first number I could muster was $250. The client thought that was for a single meeting, not a year-long program—oops.
The next day, I raised it to $2,500. I had built a seven-step process with a comprehensive financial team I could refer for implementation. But I still priced more on how I valued myself than on the value I provided.
Within three months, I landed on $7,500 for the year. That included a three-day workshop, every-other-week meetings, newsletters, recordings, videos, and more.
Going from $250 to $7,500 wasn’t just about pricing—it was about realizing the results I provided, the process I had created, and my worth.
My value. That was key. My mind had to expand beyond the constraints my industry had ingrained in me.
Surprisingly, more people bought, not less. It made sense to them, but first it had to make sense to me.
To create contrast and have $7500 seem small, I asked the question, What is the most I could conceive of charging and what would I have to provide to deliver those results?
It was an effective exercise to expand value and dream big. It provided a burst of creativity and excitement, allowing me to break free from the early constraints and scarcity mindset.
The Time for Money Constraint
Many of my early clients—attorneys, accountants—charged hourly. Even as a client, it didn’t feel good to be billed for small talk or feel that every moment had a ticker draining my wallet.
By charging hourly, they were training people to see them as commodities. When someone else was cheaper, they lost the business. They weren’t being paid for outcomes, just time.
Trading time for money is a limited game, a losing, finite game.
Too many entrepreneurs undercharge. And it has more to do with how they see themselves than the actual value they create.
Escape the commodity trap.
Create a unique process and build a relational model (versus a transactional model) to avoid being judged by the hour. When you sell time, you invite comparison. Someone will always be cheaper. But can they create the value you do?
You must stand for your value—and value yourself first.
- Commoditization: Clients compare you like a commodity, not a creator.
- Cap on Income: There are only so many hours in the day.
- Scarcity Trap: You end up in survival mode, chasing hours instead of creating more value.
People don’t buy time—they buy results, transformation, and peace of mind. They want outcomes, not hours.
A friend of mine, a somatic therapist, had produced extraordinary results yet hesitated to raise her rates. She billed hourly, even though her work was transformational.
Together, we created packages around her four-part healing process. Instead of $120 per hour, she now charges $4,000 for a complete program that includes prep, integration, and follow-up over 4 days. If she travels, it’s $10,000. And honestly, I’d gladly pay twice that considering the impact.
Pricing Models to Consider
- Project-Based Pricing: Charge for outcomes, not time.
- Packages: Bundle services into tiers that reflect transformation.
- Retainers: Offer ongoing support for predictable revenue.
- Performance-Based: Tie fees to results achieved.
- Premium/Exclusive Access: Charge for direct access, priority, or deeper involvement.
No matter the model, have pricing reflect value, not your insecurity.
When I launched my Multiplier community, we started at one price. A year later, after adding one-on-one coaching, more resources, and growing the community, the value had multiplied. It was time for tuition to reflect the transformation.
That decision wasn’t just financial, it was philosophical. If I undervalued it, members would too. It would stunt the growth and resources if there wasn’t more profit. Plus, people pay more attention to what they pay for.
And as the program grew, the increased profitability has allowed us to invest in infrastructure, add X1Wealth.com AI tools and platform, hire amazing talent, and expand our vision.
Pricing became a duty, a stewardship to fund the mission.
Part 2: Breaking Free from Limiting Beliefs
If you’ve ever hesitated to raise your rates, you’ve heard the internal scarcity whisper: “People won’t pay that much.” “What if I lose clients?” “Who am I to charge that?” “My competition charges less.” “Will expectations go up?” “What if fewer people join?”
These aren’t numbers problems. They’re belief problems.
Where Limiting Beliefs Come From
- Family patterns: I grew up in a coal-mining town where money always felt scarce. My great-grandfather lived in a tent for years to bring his family from Italy. Scarcity was handed down like an heirloom. Inherited beliefs become invisible scripts that govern how we charge, spend, and save.
- Cultural programming: Sacrifice, save, scrimp; it’s built into society’s story.
- Past mistakes: When I lost money in real estate during the Great Recession, I carried shame into every financial decision. I had to learn to separate my self-worth from my net worth.
- Childhood circumstances: We often form our mindset before our brain is fully developed. Painful experiences can create protective mechanisms that prevent both pain and prosperity.
The Reframe
Money is a byproduct of value. The more value you create, the more money follows.
“It’s not what you deserve. It’s what you believe you deserve.” -Gary Kadi
Myths keep people stuck. Myths like “a penny saved is a penny earned” or “the finite pie.” The truth? Scarcity-based beliefs lead to underpricing, poor decisions, and stunted growth.
If you carry guilt, shame, or fear into your pricing, you’ll stay stuck in scarcity. When you heal your relationship with money, you start charging based on value and creating from abundance.
Part 3: Building a Team Without Losing Your Shirt
You can hustle your way to a million, but eventually you’ll hit a ceiling and exhaustion. The moment you build a team, everything changes. A team can multiply your impact or drain your bank account and sanity.
When I ran my first company, Engenuity, we grew fast. Too fast. I hired quickly and built complexity instead of simplicity. I hired out of convenience, not competence.
I thought adding more people would solve problems. Instead, the wrong people magnified them. Cash flow was drained, culture fractured, and I spent my time cleaning up messes.
The Promise of a Team
- Greater leverage.
- Ability to scale beyond yourself.
- More freedom and impact.
The Price of a Team
- Cash Flow: Payroll hits even when revenue dips.
- Time Cost: You must mentor, manage, and train.
- Bad Hires: One wrong fit can cost dearly.
- Bad Partnerships: Even worse—loss of trust, broken culture, legal messes.
How to Build Without Breaking
- Invest in the skill of hiring. Create a process. Establish rules. Inspire more people to apply.
- Hire for values first, skills second. You can train skills; you can’t fix character.
- Delegate what drains you. Do more of what you do best and do less of those things that you procrastinate or take too much energy.
- Create systems, not dependence. Empower your people. Don’t become the bottleneck.
- Think collaboration, not replacement. The best teams amplify your vision.
I used to sell life insurance one-on-one I enjoyed it for a time, then I felt drained and unfulfilled.
The breakthrough came when I started writing books, creating courses, speaking, and licensing my content to agents.
By building a team, it allowed me to reach more people and have greater impact. It allowed me to enjoy what I was doing to a higher degree and develop the skills that mattered most. It was the key to scaling.
The lesson: teams multiply when built on alignment and abundance; they destroy when built on desperation and convenience.
Part 4: Creating From Abundance, Not Scarcity
Scarcity says, “When I have enough money, time, or ability, then I’ll create.”
Abundance says, “I create now, and the resources will follow.”
From an abundance mindset, we ask:
- What would I create if time and money weren’t constraints?
- What could I dedicate 20 years of my life to and still love it?
- What brings me energy instead of draining it?
Life is not guaranteed. Two of my business partners passed away at age 35. Les once said, “It’s not how long you are here, but what you do while you are here.”
That reminder changed me. I became more present. I stopped waiting for “someday” and started creating a life I didn’t want to retire from. Time with my family. Learning to create boundaries. Take time for the things I enjoy. Taking care of my health. And being very strategic about what I did and didn’t do.
In the last decade, I doubled down on creating from joy- writing, speaking, comedy, one-man shows. Not because they guaranteed a financial return, but because they aligned with my Soul Purpose. They brought energy, expression, and fulfillment.
Beyond Constraint
True creation happens when you play beyond money, time, and ability. It’s when you invent your own game—building from vision, not limitation.
Abundance means:
Designing programs that transform lives now, not one day someday.
Building teams that multiply, not drain.
Charging prices that reflect value, not fear.
Creating processes and products that live beyond your direct involvement.
Make. Keep. Grow. Multiply.
Wealth is not one-dimensional. It’s not just about making money on money. The real wealth equation is:
- Make more money: by charging based on value, not time.
- Keep more: by plugging leaks, reducing taxes, and building efficient systems.
- Grow more: by investing in alignment with your Investor DNA.
- Multiply: by building teams, creating systems, and collaborating from abundance.
Stop undercharging. Stop selling time. Value yourself, invest in others, and create without constraint.
Because you don’t get a second chance to live a life you love. And the true measure of wealth is building a life you never want to retire from.
