In this episode, the author of “Success Through Failing” interviews me about the principles that helped her change her life.
She writes:
“I had a toxic relationship with money for over three decades… Every time I even thought about money, it would bring extreme anxiety… Even as I started my entrepreneurial journey, I kept plateauing in my business. But then….. Leslie Householder came into my life. Through her books, online program, and 3 day [Genius Bootcamp], I reshaped my mindset around money and learned the Laws of Prosperity. And you know what? I started doubling my income every year.
“Money is a blessing now. It is a form of energy that can do much good in this world. Money flows to me and for me. Want to know how to do this in your own life? Don’t miss this episode!!”
TRANSCRIPT:
Announcer: Welcome to the Rare Faith podcast where the solution to every problem is only an idea away and where the same activity with just a little more awareness always yields better results. Award-winning best-selling author Leslie Householder bring some of her best information to this inspiring series of life-changing episodes that you won’t want to miss. Show notes for this episode can be found at ararekindoffaith.com.
Wendy: Welcome to the Success Through Failing podcast … today is an amazing day folks. I have been looking forward to this day for several weeks because in my studio today is one of my mentors Leslie Householder and I’ve got to tell you a little bit about her. She has been instrumental and had such an incredible impact on my life. Um several years ago I picked up her one of her international best-selling books which was a “Jackrabbit Factor”. I was starting my entrepreneurial journey and it really shifted my thoughts and my perceptions and and helped me to become a better entrepreneur. But it was really when I picked up her book “Hidden Treasures” that things really started to shift for me in my life. Um this book really took my very very terrible relationship with money, a very strained relationship with money, and helped me to really make amends with it. And she helped me to understand the laws of prosperity and I allowed my start itself to start receiving money. I started to understand what I needed to do and as long as I abided by those laws things worked out well. And I have to tell you in the last four, four years since I read that book I have literally doubled my income every single year, okay. So it, they do work and it is amazing. So the last part that I want to make sure that you know is I went to her than Genius Boot Camp and that’s where I met the lovely Chantel McBride who was later in my book. She also is a board member on my nonprofit “You Got This Women” and she’s a very, very dear friend of mine. And through this three-day Genius Boot Camp I really tapped into my inspiration, my intuition. And it was at the Genius Boot Camp, and I’m gonna try and say this without getting too emotional, that I received a message that said “You need to use your gift of communication to heal the hearts and minds of women and youth.” And everything has changed since then. All of my focus, every decision I make in business and in life besides my own personal family unit is around that inspiration. And less than a year later I wrote wrote the book “Success Through Failing: Finding Your Greatest Gifts in the Darkest Hours”. I had the success summit, I’ve since then had several different conferences, I’ve been speaking on stages, and my podcast is now in the top 50. So with that being said Leslie, I don’t know if you have any idea the profound impact that you’ve made in my life. That I want to thank you because my life has changed because of you.
Leslie: Wendy thank you for sharing all that it’s it’s really humbling and it’s an honor to be here. And I’ve just been so amazed and in awe at what you’ve been able to create and do and how you serve and how you reach out and you lift others and how many how many countless people that have gained new hope because of the messages that you’ve brought to them. And so I honor you for what you’ve done.
Wendy: Oh well thank you once again and I’m honored for you to be here. And why don’t you share with the listeners what is in your life right now. Just describe a little bit of who you are. I know you have a large family and just kind of tell us what you’re doing now.
Leslie: Oh gosh life is, life is amazing. All those years and and I’m sure we’ll kind of get into this a little bit but all those years that I was struggling so much with my relationship with money and just in a place of despair for so many years and hopelessness, all I wanted, you know you go to these events or you read these books or you hear these speakers who talk about how you can have this amazing wealthy lifestyle of luxury and you can drive the fancy cars and you can have the giant home and all this stuff, it was kind of nice to think about those things but it was so far beyond anything I could really believe realistically for me that honestly I just wanted to get to a place of normal. You know there’s this place between desperation and luxury that’s just called normal and I would have been thrilled to just be able to live the normal life, the American Dream. I wanted a home of my own for example. I wanted to not worry about the neighborhood my kids were playing in. I wanted to be able to feed them something other than condiments and what we could scare up like rice or oats or you know it was it was, I’m feeling emotional right now remembering what that was like and knowing that there are people listening to this podcast who are probably there right now. And you ask about what my life is like now and I could, can I just celebrate that it it’s normal? I, I just am so grateful. I wanted to be able to stay home with my kids as we raised them. I get to do that now. I wanted to be in a home of our own and we were able to get a really beautiful home years ago and then we got hit really hard in the, the recession. It took, and this was after I wrote my books and everything. And that was a really really hard place to be. And through that experience I learned even deeper how true and dependable the principles that you talked about and that I’m sure we’ll get to touch on, how dependable they are and that you can use them to bounce back. If you’ve had a good life before and things fell apart, you can get back. If you’ve never experienced it, you can get there. So for many years we were renting again. We’re all where we are and we all have places we want to get to and no matter what that is, the principles, these principles of having this rare kind of faith that causes things to happen uh can get you anywhere you need to be or anywhere you want to be. So you asked about what my life is like now and probably one of my greatest victories I’d say one of my proudest accomplishments is to realize that we are all born with an innate desire to learn all that we need to learn to accomplish what we were put here to do in our life. And the reason I bring that up now is because that was what I wanted to raise my children with is I wanted them to discover and understand that they have a purpose that they have all that they need, all the resources that they will need will come to them, will be there for them as they as they seek out the contribution that they can make, as they seek out what unique gifts and talents they were given to give back to the community with. And so often we get caught up and “I don’t have what I need. I don’t have what I need just to survive.” a lot of times. But beyond that, beyond even comfort, beyond even living comfortably, is finding that purpose because as long as you are in that groove, all the resources you need are there and they’re lining up ahead of you so that they’re there when you get to that next step. I kind of feel like I’m rambling.
Wendy: No amen to everything you said. And I was thinking about my normalcy. You were saying “I just want a normalcy.” And in my brain for so many years I just wanted more money than month, right? The month was always still going when the money was already gone, right. So I wanted, I wanted more money than month instead of more month than money. And at the end of paying my bills I was almost always overdrawn in my account. Almost every single month. There was one month that I was seven hundred dollars in fees from overdraft fees. And I thought to myself “If I could just have enough to meet the needs of my family, there would be such a sense of relief.” And I look at my month, two months ago as I’ve stepped into this new place of living on purpose and living in my gifts and sharing them with the world, and I recognize that I made more in the month of May that I made in an entire year for almost 14 years. And the sense of the ability that I’m able to to magnify some of the things that I want to do in this world, the goodness that I want to shower this world with, the humanitarian work that I want to do, the gifts of money that I’m able to share with other people, it’s such a drastic difference from where I was in this mindset of scarcity and fear and fight and flight. I wasn’t making good decisions because I was constantly worried about whether or not I could feed my family. And so these principles can take you to a place of just feeling like you can keep your head above the water. And from that space you can just start to soar. And so that place of normalcy can change over time too, right? And so let’s go back to the start. Tell me, where did these laws, where did your journey start? Because I know it didn’t start from here. You’ve had many many years where you have been able to apply these principles and practice them and understand them. So where did this start?
Leslie: Yeah so when we got married, like I said we just wanted we want a normal life and I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. That’s what my husband and I talked about before we married and we agreed on that point. And so you know if you agree on that then it should be easy to make happen, right? Well not so. It was interesting because it started to feel like the story of Job. It’s just like one thing after another we kept getting hit with this and that and we just couldn’t get in front of it and it was like life was testing us on our resolve to create the kind of family life we were looking to create. And we would, oh I just remember and and you know there’s, Oh everybody’s got a sob story and I don’t want it, I don’t want to be redundant for people who have already heard all of it. But to give you an idea of how desperate it felt because we weren’t making, we weren’t making enough money trying to work multiple jobs and and go to school and we had started our family already and one of our jobs was we were janitors after hours and cleaning office buildings and I remember finding food in the trash and just being super excited because it was something to eat. And I think back and I’m like did we did we ever really live that way? To me that’s just like bizarre. I mean we weren’t homeless. I know there’s always, there’s always someone worse off but that’s where we were at. And we had some friends who saw that a lot of our problem might have been eased if we learned how to think differently and so they invited us to start coming to seminars that would teach us about personal development and business development and just anything that would help us look for and find a better way. And I counted it up in over the next seven years we attended no less than 100 seminars and it was really a puzzle to me though because we’d get all pumped up at these events and we think “Oh everything’s going to change. We can we can change our life.” When we come home and within the next two weeks you know life hits us again we’re like “Well that didn’t work.” And we’re back to where we were a but just a little more cynical. And finally there was an event and I knew I needed to be at it but I couldn’t justify, we were spending money we didn’t have on these things. Why is everybody else okay and we are in such a mess? How are our friends doing it? You know I just, I just couldn’t figure it out. So this event came along and I’m like “I know I need to be there but man I really don’t want to go.” And finally I agreed with my husband I said “Alright, I’ll go to this one seminar. Last one and that’s it. If something big doesn’t change permanently, then I’m done. I’m done. I’m just gonna have to figure out how to be happy right where we’re at.” And, and I’ve told this many times but this was at a time where I came outside and saw that a neighbor kid had broken my broom in half and I was wound so tight I called the police on him.
Wendy: Over a broom!
Leslie: Over a broom. That’s where my head was. Have you ever met a neighbor like that? I realize now it’s because they’re going through stuff. They’re not just irrational, they’re going through something. And so I went to this event with my husband and at the end everybody was all in a buzz about “Oh my gosh that changes everything!” But honestly I’d spent so much of that event thinking about how I didn’t want to be there and how much money would spent and how we’re gonna afford the next bills and I I was not listening. But everybody was in such a buzz about what had gone on there that I’m like “Whoa what did I just miss?” Well I had an opportunity to listen to that speaker again six months, about six months later and this time because people were still talking about it, I decided I would go and listen and take notes and not miss a thing. So we did this and about halfway through something shifted. Lights went on, my husband and I looked at each other and were like “Oh my gosh really is that all it is?” And with that epiphany we came home and tripled our income in three months.
Wendy: Wow.
Leslie: And this was after seven years of this. And it had such an impact on my life and that speaker was Bob Proctor… And after that we, you know like I said we triple their income in in those three months and I was able to, we were able to get on top our bills. We were able to start saving. That was a new experience. And then he put out an inquiry asking “Have you ever wanted to teach what you’ve learned?” And I had to do it. I went and trained with him. I think it cost about $9,000 at that time. But that’s what we had in savings by now. And I thought “I wonder how he knew that’s what we’d have.” You know I went and trained with him to teach his programs and I became one of his facilitators. But by this time I had I think five children, one on the way, my husband was working at a job that was about two and a half hours away from home. And so you know yes the money was flowing better but life was not ideal yet.
Wendy: Yeah.
Leslie: So I thought “Well I feel guilty not sharing what I learned.” But putting on these events was kind of a lot to do at that time. And at this time we were living in a two-bedroom house with five kids and one on the way that we were remodeling and so we’re on like concrete floors and tack strip and and trying to do events and it just it was just too much. And so I thought “Well I, I’ll write a book and I’ll let the book be my seminar.” And so I took all the notes that I had taken over those seven years of seminars and the most profound things that had shifted me along the way and those became the fodder for the story I created called “The Jackrabbit Factor”.
Wendy: Mm-hmm.
Leslie: And all of that was basically all the things that we needed to learn over those seven years condensed into a story that someone can enjoy in two or three hours and save them all those years that it took us to figure them out. And after that happened there was an increased demand for seminars which is not what I was trying to do, but it you know that that one became a best-seller and eventually we were able to create trainings that could be experienced from home because I was a busy mom. So that’s kind of where our business went. We, we ended up making “The Jackrabbit Factor” and actually “Hidden Treasures” also, and now the sequel to Jackrabbit, “Portal to Genius”. They’re all free downloads so that people can be learning and you know a lot of people learn what they need to from the books and never come back for anything else. And I I love that. I love that because it is my, it is my goal, it’s my purpose. It is my mission to deliver that same epiphany to as many people as I possibly can. And I think when you were talking about what you’re doing now Wendy and the success you’ve been able to experience, as I heard what you’ve been able to accomplish and what you’ve been able to build, and how you’re able to serve, and how much the money has begun to really flow and increases and increases and increases, I have a feeling it’s not because you’re focused on your lifestyle.
Wendy: No absolutely not. Yes a hundred percent it’s about serving. And as I as I live in my purpose and I utilize the gift that I believe and my terminology would be my Heavenly Father or my God gave to me, the abundance flows and and I don’t have to worry about it. Now am I making most of my money from my personal development products? No. I actually have a thriving real estate business. But it’s been really interesting when I first started real estate it was incredibly challenging to me and it took an enormous amount of time. And I get phone calls such as someone calling me just a couple weeks ago and said “Hey I see that you have this listed and I want to make a full-price offer.” And here I get both sides it, it sells for cash two weeks later, and that is the type of shift that is happening in my life as I move out into my purpose. And it just seems like things go so much smoother. Do I still have challenges? Absolutely. Do I still have to put in the effort, and the time, and have the courage to move towards the inspiration that’s been downloaded to me? Absolutely. But it flows and it feels so joyful. There’s a different feeling about it. It’s not like I’m climbing up this mountain carrying boulders on my shoulder. It’s really like “Okay I’m moving forward with exactly what I need to be doing.” And as a result I’m being blessed in so many areas. And so you’re absolutely right in terms of “I’m living in a different place in my mindset which allows me to receive.” And I allow myself to receive, Leslie. Before I really didn’t believe I, there were so many beliefs underlying money that A) it was evil. My father was very, very successful but he was constantly gone. And so in my mind if you were successful and you had a lot of money, that was what it had to look like. You had to be away from your family, you had to sacrifice your family relationships in order to be financially successful. And so understanding that that is not true, that is that’s something that I created I was able to get through that and then also understand that creating financial abundance magnifies who you already are. So if you have a good heart, you can do more good. And it didn’t mean that it was evil. The love of money, the worship of money is not healthy and not good, but enjoying the energy and exchange that you get from having abundance in your life and the opportunities that it affords you and the ways that you can serve in a completely different way is unbelievable. And I have to pinch myself every single day. And I thank the Lord above that I am in this place that I can receive.
Wendy: I love that. I love that and I am right there with you. When you ask where am I at right now, what’s life like right now, I I find myself you know right on my blog, or I’ll communicate with some of my clients, or I’ll put out a podcast or something like that and I just come away from it thinking “I love my life. I love what I do.” I love, there is psychic income on top of the financial income that comes from knowing that you’re making a difference and knowing that you’re earning a living because you’re making a difference. And that in a sense, in a sense you’re working for I mean who’s our boss now? It’s God. And we get to work for Him. Yeah He pays in more than just one way and that fulfillment. And I love this man named William Hutchison Murray said this he says “Until one is committed” and, and I’ll you know with listeners thinking about committed to what you really desire to be doing in your life, committed to making that happen. Committed to creating the, the life with your family that you really want. So he says “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy. The chance to draw back always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiatives and creation, there is one elementary truth that the moment one definitely commits oneself then Providence moves too.” He said “All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from that decision. From the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets: whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius power and magic in it.”
Wendy: That just gives me chills. It really does start with the decision. It started with in my personal life when I was at your Genius Boot Camp and I had the download of what I needed to be doing with my life, it started with the decision that I would move forward with courage, breakthrough and lean into resistance instead of putting it back into my place of fear and playing small like I had been for so many years. I decided I was gonna be bold. I was gonna live big and I was going to have the guidance of my higher power. So He had my back. The universe had my back I couldn’t go wrong, right? So and it sounds like you have made those big decisions in your life as well.
Leslie: And you have to make them again and again and again.
Wendy: Mm-hmm.
Leslie: I mean there may have been that big one that says “I’ve had it. I’m gonna start pursuing my dream. I’m going to start making this happen. I, there’s no turning back. This is, if it takes me ‘til the day I die, this is what I’m doing.” There might be that one moment, but there’s also every little decision along the way that says “I choose to still believe. I choose to continue when things are hard.” Because I mean this is all about all the stories in your book are all about the success through failures and when people make that decision and they they hit up against a setback or something, they’ve already decided they’re they’re proceeding anyway. Nothing is going to stop them even if they go through failures first. And I’m still on that journey. I am still on that journey and and not to discourage anybody but there is so much, there is so much, there’s a word I’m trying to find. That sense of victory and accomplishment doesn’t come unless you have a little bit of that resistance. The resistance is the gift. It’s a gift. It’s a gift and as soon as you start seeing it that way, I mean my husband I have gotten to the point now where we’ll have a bad day or we’ll have a setback or something and we’ll remember what we’re working towards and we’ll, we’ll drop on our knees and say a prayer of thanks for that challenge. “Thanks for this hard day. I have no idea why it’s good for us but it always works for our good. Thank you for it. Help us find the blessing and help us find the gift that it’s delivering to us.” And the sooner we go there, the sooner things shift around and on the other side of it are amazing blessings and amazing if this is, this is how you live so that those uncanny coincidences are part of your story. You know those, “Oh my gosh this miracle happened.” Well that miracle happened because of how you chose to think in the setback.
Wendy: Yes. Yes! Oh what a golden nugget. In fact in talking about golden nuggets and secret sauce or whatever you want to, however you want to term it, if someone were in a place like both you and I have been in our life where there is more month than money, that there is scarcity, that we, you know they may be feeling a lot of pressure, a lot of fear, they don’t know how to change their toxic relationship with money or prosperity… What would be your advice on where to start?
Leslie: Well two things. First of all I would strongly recommend that you go download the Jackrabbit Factor for free and read it today. Another thing is to realize that the solution to every problem is only an idea away and that idea is already in the room with you. And if you sit and ponder that for a minute it’s profound because we think we need, we think we need the money, we think we need this this big resource, we think we need this big contract, or we need this person that helps us, or what we think we this thing that’s out there, when really all we need is the idea that brings us to it. And that idea may be as simple as “Oh call so and so.” Well there’s the idea that just saved your bacon that month. Or you know “Walk down the street that way instead of this way because you might run into somebody.” It’s the idea that you need to bring you to the resource you’re looking for and we get that idea by allowing ourselves to see the goal accomplished and to feel the joy and the exhilaration we expect to feel before it’s even happened. Because like a radio we are turning our receiver up to a station that can receive that idea when we allow ourselves to look forward to the victory and feel it now like we’re, like we’re living it. And it’s so simple, that’s, that it’s so simple and people will do this and then immediately after they’ll say “Oh I wonder if that worked. I wonder if that did anything.” and they look for evidence and then they don’t see evidence and then they say “Oh I guess it didn’t work.” and they just killed it. But if I can share with you something, I had somebody in one of my programs just this week send me a message and, do we have time for me to share this with you? Because I-
Wendy: Oh I would love it. Yes absolutely.
Leslie: She said “I got halfway through the Mindset Mastery Program and my daughter had a breakdown. She is physically and mentally ill and I had to go into a treatment center for nine months last July. Life kind of stopped. I cried for an entire year. She’s home now and doing better mentally but physically she is not doing well. I am her full-time caregiver and I am just tired.” and then she said “I got a free coaching session with a well-known training company and during the consultation the coach asked how I was feeling physically. And I was literally numb physically. After some talking we discovered that I am totally numb emotionally due to years of living in a traumatic situation several years ago. The situation with my daughter also causes me to be emotionally numb because I have to get through the day. I cried most of the time for a year but I was still numb. I was in a fog just going through the motions. And then he explained that if my emotional vibrations are numb and I’m not feeling that I’m not attracting anything good, how can I fix that?” And I want to share with you my response to her because I think there may be people listening to this who may be able to relate to her and may have heard some things that contribute to their doubt or worry. And this is what I’ve learned. I responded “There were a lot of years when I was trying to apply the principles while also recovering from some trauma. I know what it’s like to be in survival mode. What it’s like to live numb because the pain is too great to let yourself feel it. Or sometimes you’re just numb because you’ve already felt it all too intensely and the numbness is all that’s left from burning your emotional senses cleanout. It’s hard to find the right words to describe it but here’s one thing I’ve learned: there is mercy. What your other coach said is only true if you believe it is true. Sometimes all you can give is a feeble attempt at seeing it done and a conscious choice even if it’s without emotion to believe it’s all going to work out. And if that’s truly all you can give, it, it is enough. Sometimes it’s not feeling it but speaking it. “I choose to believe.” It’s not about how intense your vibrations are on the objective, it’s only a matter of how careful you are in giving no place for the doubt. To me this is the difference between the law of attraction and what I now call rare faith. God knows what you’re capable of and when your capacity is low for all the good feelings the law requires, you can still experience success with just a little bit of faith like a mustard seed, but with a choice to kick doubt to the curb whenever it tries to creep in. With God all things are possible. He understands your pain. He asks so little. Bring whatever hope you can muster to Him, ask for his help believing he is merciful. Lean into His strength. Whatever you lack He fills in. You don’t have to be superhuman.” And I just felt like I needed to share that today.
Wendy: Wow. So profound Leslie. There are so many things that that excerpt really taught us. I mean just the strength and the, the ideas of really turning it over to a higher power, allowing that mercy, that grace and believing. I think at the end of the day it’s believing that you have the capacity to, to receive whatever help it is. Whether it’s with money or health or, or emotional numbness, right? That it’s there for the taking. And you’re exactly right. The solution is only an idea away. I don’t know if you remember when I went to the Genius Boot Camp. I did not have the financial resources to pay the ticket but I remember you saying that a solution is only an idea away. And so I put it on my day planner. I put it down that I was going to be attending it was December 6 through 8, I remember where it was at, and what I mean exactly what was happening, and I remember the way that I would feel when I was gonna be there. And it wasn’t that much longer that I received an email from you and a mass email saying “There’s going to be someone that’s going to earn a free ticket to my Genius Boot Camp in Murray, Utah December sixth through the eighth.” And I replied and did what you had mentioned and maybe two days later I received the email that I had earned that ticket. And again, Genius Boot Camp, I already shared but that changed the trajectory of my life. And I believe that what you said to that woman or that man and that, that was struggling in life and feeling emotionally numb, is also going to be able to change the trajectory of their life as well. So I want to just make sure that I give my gratitude for you Leslie, for your wisdom, for your lessons, for the things that you have been able to do to literally transform so many lives and also to solidify that relationship with their higher power. I believe at the core of everything you teach that’s kind of really one of the principles that I have been able to solidify in my own life which has radically changed everything. So with that being said, how do people download “The Jackrabbit Factor”? Where do they go to do that?
Leslie: The website jackrabbitfactor.com or you can go to my blog at rarefaith.org.
Wendy: Wonderful. And also for you podcast listeners, make sure that you subscribe both to the “Success Through Failing Podcast” so that you always get updated with the brand new podcast. I encourage you if this has done something for your life to also leave a review. It helps others to find it. And Leslie also has a podcast called “The Rare Faith Podcast”. So make sure that you go and subscribe to her podcast as well so that you can learn some of the principles that I’ve been able to learn from Leslie and also implement to radically change my life and improve what I’m able to experience and really the fulfillment and joy that I find in my day-to-day living. So with that being said, Leslie thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, for sharing your light, and being on my podcast today.
Leslie: Thank you Wendy.
Announcer: This concludes today’s episode of The Rare Faith Podcast. You’ve been listening to Leslie Householder, author of “The Jackrabbit Factor”, “Portal to Genius”, and “Hidden Treasures: Heaven’s Astonishing Help with Your Money Matters”. All three books can be downloaded free at ararekindoffaith.com. So tell your friends and join Leslie again next time as she goes even deeper into the principles that will help you change your life.
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